Posts
Approaching Forced Marriage Protection Orders following Re K
This is a guest post by Laura Vickers. Laura is a specialist children law barrister and mediator practising at No5 Barristers’ Chambers. She tweets as @LauraVickersNo5 Outline This post considers the guidance given by the President of the Family Division in the recent...
More openness from the President
The President of the Family Division Sir Andrew McFarlane has taken the very brave decision to give an open explanation of his need to undergo open heart surgery next month, in order to explain the impact it will have on planned work in coming months. Everyone here at...
‘The balance of probabilities’ – A BBC Radio 4 play set amidst care proceedings following a father’s acquittal of murdering his baby
This is a review by new writer Delia Minoprio. Delia is a family law barrister at 1 Crown Office Row specialising in all aspects of children work. She tweets as @familylawdm "When Daniel was put on trial for murdering his son, his baby...
Conciliation
We've been attending hearings under the legal blogging pilot for almost 18 months now, and in that time have covered a range of hearing and case types. But, by the back end of 2019 we were increasingly conscious that we'd not attended much in the way of run of the...
Another Re W – a successful appeal against refusal for leave to oppose an adoption
In this unusual case, Re W (A child: leave to oppose adoption) [2020] EWCA (Civ) 16, the Court of Appeal has given birth parents leave to oppose an adoption order being made. The child is nearly three years old and has been living with his prospective adopters since...
“Brain dead” baby – Court of Appeal confirms High Court’s decision to allow “dignity in death”
We reported earlier on the High Court’s decision to allow a hospital to withdraw mechanical ventilation from a baby, who had been starved of oxygen during his birth and had been declared “brain-stem dead” by doctors. Now the Court of Appeal have given their...
A day in the life of a district judge
I made an impromptu visit to the family court in Oxford last week, and was able to sit in on most of the hearings in a District Judge's list. I was permitted to report the details of each of the hearings I attended, subject to preserving the anonymity of the families....
Lawyers highlight poor practice in private law cases and the impact on families
A new research report paints a very alarming picture of the way in which some family courts are dealing with cases where there is domestic abuse, ignoring the procedures put in place by court rules. Academics at the University of Sussex conducted a survey of 88...
Re W – a successful appeal against a placement and care order (and a costs order against the LA)
This is a post by Emily Boardman. Emily is a founding partner at Boardman, Hawkins & Osborne LLP – family lawyers and mediators based in Oxfordshire. She has a national practice in adoption proceedings, appeals and representing parents in care proceedings. Emily...
The President’s Call For Evidence – First Thoughts
It was last May, not long after he had dealt with journalist and TP member Louise Tickle's successful appeal against a wrongly imposed reporting restriction order, that the President of the Family Division announced he would be holding a 'Transparency Review'. This...