Posts
What IS A contract of expectations or a written agreement? Should you sign one?
When social services are involved with children their parents or extended family are often asked to sign up to a document which is often called a “written agreement“, a “contract of expectations”, a “working agreement” or a “partnership agreement”. Parents are not...
Legal Blogging the Lay Justices
On Friday I took the opportunity to try my hand at a spot more legal blogging. It was the last ‘working’ day before the end of my staycation, and I was somewhat ambivalent about using it up on this busman’s holiday – but in the end decided I was getting rusty, and I’d...
Has the revolution happened? Can we ever go back?
The Lord Chief Justice called it “the biggest pilot project that the justice system has ever seen” and said “there will be no going back to February 2020”. Remote court hearings would have come sooner or later, but thanks to Covid-19 they came at us fast, in March...
Messing about on the river (or CoP-Celia, you’re breaking my heart…)
As the summer has worn on, clouds have been gathering. In exchanges with other Transparency Project team members, I’ve been threatening to write a rather sullen blog post about transparency for a few weeks, and have finally been gathering my thoughts on the bow of our...
THE FAMILY COURTS MUST SHOW THEIR WORKINGS
Melanie Newman is a freelance journalist. Previously a reporter at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, she has also worked for BBC Newsnight and the Victoria Derbyshire Programme. She writes for the British Medical Journal and is a regular contributor to the Law...
Gibbs (Rev 1: Mrs 0)
Gibbs v Gibbs (Rev 1) [2020] EWHC 2134 is a rather extraordinary judgment. You’ll notice the names are incorporated in the description of the case - that is for two reasons. Firstly, the judgment relates to a committal hearing, which are always held in public with the...
Corona contact and children in care – Re D-S in the Court of Appeal
Three children had been living with their grandmother under interim care orders since September 2019, pending a fact-finding hearing listed for November 2020. The reason for the care orders was that one of the children had suffered a fracture, and their mother was one...
Another recusal refusal – but this time the Court of Appeal steps in
In the second such case in a month, a judge has refused to recuse herself at the request of a litigant, but on this occasion the Court of Appeal has reversed that decision and ordered that she step down from the case and let another judge take over. In the...
![Re T (A Child: Refusal of Adoption Order) [2020] (EWCA Civ 797)](https://transparencyproject.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/shutterstock_1147438376.jpg)
Re T (A Child: Refusal of Adoption Order) [2020] (EWCA Civ 797)
This is a guest post by Jessica Smith. Jessica is a Trainee Solicitor due to qualify in September 2020 and is aspiring to be a Family Solicitor. She tweets as @JessicaLSmith__ In the recent case of Re T (A Child: Refusal of Adoption Order) [2020] (EWCA Civ 797), the...
Ditch the witch : But which witch law needs ditching?
Oh dear. Headline in last week's Independent : Fathers4Justice launches bizarre ‘Ditch The Witch’ campaign outside Johnny Depp court case The standfirst below said : Johnny Depp-Amber Heard story is ‘best advert for divorce in the world’, fathers’ rights group says....