Posts
Domestic abuse and the Financial Remedies Court
This is a guest post from Femi Ogunlende. Femi is a barrister at No5 Chambers. This post discusses the current approach to domestic abuse in financial remedy proceedings. For those short on time and unable to read the post in full, the key conclusions you need to be...
Final divorce orders – a ‘particular category’
In this guest post, barrister Elizabeth Wark explains what happened when a solicitor accidentally applied online for a divorce for the wrong client, and why that couldn't be fixed by the court. The facts In the recent case of Williams v. Williams [2024] EWHC 733...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup
Welcome to the Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family law, explain and comment on published family court judgments, and highlight other transparency news. MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY LAW MATTERS Sanchia Berg, senior reporter with the...
Frustrated: our attempts to report on family court hearing before Magistrates – a system in overload
If we can't navigate the system what hope for litigants in person? POST UPDATED 24 SEPTEMBER 2024 As far as we know legal bloggers at The Transparency Project are the only reporters who have tried to report on family court cases being dealt with by magistrates. Given...
Just how open is an open meeting of the Family Justice Council?
On 22 July 2024 the Family Justice Council held its annual open meeting. We attended to see what we could see. In order to attend we had to apply in advance by a stated deadline. Questions were permitted but had to be asked in advance, by completing a web form, which...
London judge makes post-adoption contact order
We’ve come across what we think is the first ever judgment published on TNA/BAILII where a post-adoption contact order under section 51A of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 has been made. However, this order makes rather a fleeting appearance in the very long and...
Can you trust the information in popular petitions?
They may look persuasive, and present the arguments for their proposed action in a punchy and compelling manner, even backed up by research or statistics. But who is fact checking these petitions? Do you check the claims before you sign? Alarmingly, as a result of a...
More Family Court judgments to be published online
New guidance (you can find it here – scroll down to the ninth item on the list) has been issued to family courts by the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, on how judgments by judges and magistrates should be safely anonymised and published on The...
Legal blogging from the magistrates – ‘live with’ and ‘spend time with’ orders
I’m taking up this report from Lucy’s of 5 May. This is our first successful legal blogging from a hearing before magistrates in the family court – which the mainstream media appear to be ignoring. Magistrates hear the less complicated cases which are unlikely to...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup
Welcome to the Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family law, explain and comment on published family court judgments, and highlight other transparency news. MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY LAW MATTERS The Independent (2 June 2024)...