Posts
A tale of two experts
Two judgments caught my eye in the last few weeks, adding to the body of case law relating to the conduct of experts who provide evidence in the family courts. One expert came out pretty well; the other… less so. Let’s start with the positive, shall we? (Warning:...
LAW COMMISSION – CONTEMPT OF COURT PROJECT – Memorandum by Sir James Munby
The below memorandum was prepared by Sir James Munby for the consideration of the Law Commission who are currently running a project concerning the possible reform of contempt of court. It is published with their agreement....
Albert Squarely inaccurate
This post is by Delia Minoprio. Delia is a family law barrister at 1 Crown Office Row specialising in all aspects of children work. She tweets as @familylawdm A child protection storyline is no stranger to the scripts of BBC TV’s Eastenders....
New Judiciary website with transparency updates
After many months - getting on for a year - of The Transparency Project continually asking for more transparent publication of the progress of the President's Transparency Implementation Group (TIG) we're pleased to have been notified of a new TIG webpage on a new...
Royal wills: why the Queen’s is different
In two previous posts we’ve discussed the fate of the late Prince Philip’s will. Following an application by his executors, the court made an order sealing it up for 90 years. There were questions about how transparent those proceedings were, but the basic rule that...
What is happening with publication of Family Court judgments?
We have been concerned for some time that the publication of judgments from the Family Court by non-High Court judges seems to have dried up. In fact they haven’t, not altogether at any rate; they’re just harder to find now. These judgments used to be kept in a...
Where’s me DAPPs? (the end of perpetrators’ programmes)
(Excuse the title for this post. The writer is from Bristol.) When a father who is involved in proceedings concerning his child has been found to have perpetrated domestic abuse against the other parent, the family court will generally look to assess the risk...
New report focuses on public attitudes to the publication of justice data
The Legal Education Foundation has published a report about the collection, use and commercial exploitation of data from the justice system, focusing in particular on the new judgments database set up by The National Archives earlier this year. It reveals both a lack...
FAMILY COURT REPORTING WATCH ROUNDUP
Welcome to the Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family court cases, explain and comment on published family court judgments and highlight other transparency news MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY COURT MATTERS The Daily Mail - The Mail...
‘Choosing the course which is less stressful to the child’
The full name of this case is Warwickshire County Council v the Mother and the Father and X and Z. It appears on TNA as Warwickshire County Council v the Mother & ors [2022] EWHC 2146 (Fam). It’s also on BAILII here – which conveniently includes links to the case...