Posts
Two new Griffiths judgments – what are they about?
Last week saw publication of two new judgments relating to the child of former MP, Andrew Griffiths, and current MP, Kate Griffiths. Here we summarise what those judgments are about and what they do (or don't) tell us about matters of principle that might affect...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup
Welcome to this month's 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 Independent, Daily...
Landmark solutions to difficult cases
At every level, judges of the family court have to resolve sometimes unimaginable situations - acts in the "never ending carnival of human misery." The intensity of such cases is nearly always increased where the children involved are very unwell, and the patchwork of...
Behind Closed Doors – new book about the care system
Behind Closed Doors: Why we break up families - and how to mend them, is due for publication by Virago on February 3. Here the Author, Polly Curtis, answers our questions. What's your book, Behind Closed Doors, about? It’s about how the decision is made to remove a...
Justice system data in 2022: New year reflections and resolutions
What’s the collective noun for browser tabs? I ended my year with a lot – a flock? A bevy? – open, mainly relating to one of my main preoccupations, justice system data (i.e. information generated by the process of justice). I’m somewhat nervously returning to them...
Remote hearings: the HMCTS evaluation
Last month HM Courts and Tribunals Service published their own research into user experiences of remote hearings: Evaluation of remote hearings during the COVID 19 pandemic. The report analyses responses to surveys conducted between May and October 2020 with public...
A curious headline: “Senior judges voice alarm after private deal in oligarch divorce”
We saw this headline in The Times just after Christmas. What on earth is it all about? We've read and re-read it and to be frank, we're still not completely sure. The 'oligarch divorce' in question is that of Farkhad Akhmedov and his ex wife Tatiana Akhmedova, which...
The Equal Treatment Bench Book – guidance on fairness for judges
UPDATE 25.03.24: We've now seen that there's a revised 2023 version here. We've just noticed that a revised version of this lengthy document (566 pages!) has been issued online, so we looked for any references to transparency. What we found is brief and out of date....
Authorities seeking to silence families?
On 24 November, the BBC broadcast the story above. The Court of Protection (CoP) judgment, PH & Anor v Brighton And Hove City Council [2021] EWCOP 63, has now been published on BAILII. The full name of the case is: PH and RH v (1) Brighton and Hove City Council...
Griffiths v Tickle – a lawyer’s view
This post originally appeared on the author's blog Pink Tape and is reposted here with permission (NB, disclosure : the author is the Chair of The Transparency Project). Most of the newspapers carried the story on Saturday: 'Andrew Griffiths found to have raped his...