Posts
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 :...
Bell v Tavistock in the High Court: an explainer
Last week, the High Court handed down the judgment in the highly publicised case of Bell v Tavistock (R (Quincy Bell) and A v Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, and others [2020] EWHC 3274). In this blog post, compiled by several members of the TP team, we...
CHALLENGING ADOPTION REVISITED: RE C AND REVOCATION OF PLACEMENT ORDERS
This is a guest post by Mark Senior. Mark was a Solicitor specialising in family law for 9 years before moving to the Bar in 2002. He is based in Liverpool at St Johns Buildings Chambers. He tweets as @grumpyoldbrief. At the end of October a friend and colleague...
Family courts coronavirus recovery update
“Throughout the crisis, we have supported the judiciary in their prioritisation of cases to ensure the most urgent cases could be heard, and supported the implementation of the President of the Family Division’s guidance on urgent cases and remote hearings which was...
The view lengthens…
Last week saw the publication of the latest 'View from the President's Chambers' (a label adopted by the current President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, but coined by his predecessor Sir James Munby to describe his regular 'state of the system'...
Deprivation of liberty: Unlawful placements of children
Can an English family court order the unlawful detention of a Welsh child? This is a surprising question currently before the Supreme Court in a case called Re T. The order I'm referring to was one made in the High Court of England and Wales so my question is not...