Posts
Tafida Raqeeb: Costs Judgment
In 2019, we reported on the tragic case of Tafida Raqeeb. Raqeeb v Barts Health NHS Trust [2019] EWHC 2531 (Admin) and [2019] EWHC 2530 (Fam)). As a brief reminder, Tafida Raqeeb, now aged 5, experienced a catastrophic brain injury in February...
The perennial pantomime of ‘Divorce D Day’?
This post originally appeared at Linked In and on the Pennington Manches Cooper website and is re published with thanks. Its author, Tony Roe, is a consultant at Pennington Manches Cooper and tweets as @tonyroedivorce. The first working Monday in January 'dubbed...
The Open Justice Principle – the clue is in the title…
A little while ago we wrote about a case called Cape v Dring. It wasn't a family case at all, in fact it was something to do with asbestos, and the reason we wrote about it was because it dealt with the principles that apply to applications for sight of documents...
Bumper Roundup
This is a roundup with a difference - it's a review of all things transparency in 2019. There's a lot of ground to cover! In the new year we're hoping to bring back our regular Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media...
Experience as a legal blogger at the Tafida Raqeeb Case
This blog post originally appeared as the Transparency Project's monthly column in Family Law for December 2019 at Family Law [2019] Fam Law 1476. Case background In September, I attended the hearing of the the Tafida Raqeeb case (Raqeeb (by her litigation friend) v...
Legal advice on online forums and social media (Part I)
This is a post from Tatiana Tkacukova, lecturer in English Language at Birmingham City University. There are many concerns expressed about the quality of advice now available to parties in family court cases, as so few have lawyers. This blog post discusses the...
President says ‘We can’t cope’ – oh, and that transparency review is Go!
The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane (that's 'Top Judge' to you), has sent us his Christmas letter. Adopting the traditional format of the 'View from the President's Chambers', Sir Andrew tackles a number of issues, two of which are of particular...
State of the Union: Scotland, England, and the Villiers divorce case
On 9 and 10 December 2019, the Supreme Court - Lady Hale, Lord Kerr, Lord Wilson, Lady Black, Lord Sales – heard an appeal between Charles Villiers (‘a relative of the Duchess of Cornwall’: The Times) and his wife Emma Villiers (‘the sort of person who had 11...
When verdicts and findings collide
Last week Mr Justice Baker (now Lord Justice Baker) published three judgments from care proceedings, naming the parents of a child known as Q. Q had suffered a range of injuries, including rib fractures and head injuries, and those injuries had been inflicted by one...
Judge believes blameless parents and sends baby home
His Honour Judge Dancey has published a judgment in which he explains why he has decided that social services have failed to prove that either parent caused a skull fracture sustained by their baby, with the result that the baby is going home. The judge decided that...