Posts
The Domestic Abuse Bill and family courts
As was noted in the ‘Harm report’ published in June last year and the Family Justice Council forum that was held on 14 December, there is mounting concern about the way family courts deal with allegations of domestic abuse that arise in some contact disputes. Starting...
Law, Justice & the Spaces Between
Transparency enthusiasts may be interested in this exciting series of free webinars running in January to March, investigating openness and press reporting of our courts and tribunals. The webinars have been organised by Transparency Project journalist Louise Tickle...
2020 Looking back and giving thanks
It's been a strange old, tough old year. I wanted to take a moment to look back at some of the work done by Transparency Project volunteers and guest writers over the year and to extend thanks to them for their contribution to our team and our work. We've seen some...
W (Children): judge’s recusal does not indicate bias
This is a guest post by John Bolch, reproduced with kind permission from his Family Lore blog. Reading the case name W (Children: Reopening/recusal) I assumed that this would be another of those applications by a party, invariably the father, for the recusal of...
Tidying up our own back yard – The Family Justice Council event on the Harm Report findings
Monday night’s FJC (online) event was billed as exploring the report and recommendations of the expert panel on Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases [June 2020]. The (short) ‘final’ report of the working group charged...
All about BAILII – part one: what it is and where it came from
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the British and Irish Legal Information Institute, better known to all who use it as BAILII. Although it is the UK’s most popular free legal website, according to a survey by the Society of Legal Scholars, BAILII is a charity,...
All about BAILII – part two: how to use it
The main purpose of this post is to show how to find cases and other materials on the site of the British and Irish Legal Information Institute, better known as BAILII. There is a separate post explaining what BAILII is and where it came from: All about BAILII – part...
![Changing a social worker’s statement without her knowledge – E (A Child : Care proceedings : Costs) [2017]](https://transparencyproject.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/unnamed.png)
Changing a social worker’s statement without her knowledge – E (A Child : Care proceedings : Costs) [2017]
It is very unusual for a judge to make an order in care proceedings requiring a Local Authority to pay the costs incurred by the other parties. It is perhaps even more unusual for a Local Authority to accept that it messed up so badly that such an order against them...
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 Linktastic The Guardian...
Observing a private law children case in the High Court
Last month I observed a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court under the Legal Blogging pilot. In some respects it was unusual – but it also featured some elements that were very familiar to me as a family barrister. This is my report of what I saw. TLDR :...