Posts
Mind the Gap – the welfare decisions for H-N, a child (PART TWO)
PART TWO This is Part Two of a report from observing a final hearing in the Central London Family Court as a legal blogger and applying for the usual statutory bar on reporting to be lifted, so as to be able to publish this anonymised report. Part One is my...
Mind the Gap – the welfare decisions for H-N, a child (PART ONE)
This is a report from observing a final hearing in the Central London Family Court as a legal blogger and applying for the usual statutory bar on reporting to be lifted, so as to be able to publish this anonymised report. It’s split into two parts as it’s long. Part...
‘A failure of implementation’ – House of Lords Committee: ‘unacceptable’ that legislation for children and families was ‘largely left on the shelf’
The House of Lords set up a parliamentary post-legislative scrutiny committee in January 2022 to inquire into the effectiveness of the Children and Families Act 2014. One of the several criticisms that appear in the committee’s report (published today) is the delay in...
Family Court reporting pilot courts
From 30th January 2023, the current postion for the media or legal bloggers who attend family court hearings will change in three courts. Under a pilot scheme introduced by Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division, it will no longer be necessary for a...
Logan Mwangi – the Child Practice Review and the family courts
This blog post will not go into detail about the distressing history of five year old Logan Mwangi, with which we are all too familiar through media coverage of the trial of the three people who were responsible for his death. An impression had been given at that time...
FGM: Bad-faith actors and unintended consequences
This is a guest post by Georgia Fineberg about the case of Nottingham County Council v OA & Anor [2022] EWFC 102 (17 August 2022). Georgia is a pupil barrister who has worked for nine years in the women's voluntary sector, primarily supporting...
Transparency Project on social media
We are now on Mastodon, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram (occasionally!) and (for the time being) Twitter. Our Mastodon account is - @seethrujustice.mas.to. We're still working that new platform out! If you don't already follow us please feel free to go and...
Open Justice : Court Reporting In The Digital Age
On 1 November 2022 the House of Commons Justice Committee published their report : Open Justice: court reporting in the digital age. Whilst not limited to matters relating to Family Justice, the report contains a significant section dealing specifically with Open...
Hague Mothers
'A good law gone bad' is how the Hague Convention on International Abduction was described in a session organised by the Filia Hague Mothers project at an international feminist conference held in Cardiff over the weekend. The Convention was drafted in 1980 and...
The Relaunch of Family Mediation
I've been working in and around family and child law for more than 30 years, during which several different UK governments and departments have discovered family mediation, as if the first time. 'Mediation is quicker, cheaper, less stressful, more empowering' etc etc....