Posts
The Transparency Project – we don’t set out to please all of the people all of the time
We know that the issue of family courts dealing with domestic abuse is contentious. In fact, it’s almost impossible to talk about it without being criticised by someone or other. We knew this when we produced our guidance note for families, and we knew it when we made...
A view from the front row – a barrister’s perspective of the family court’s mishandling of children cases involving domestic abuse
This is a guest post from Dr Charlotte Proudman. Charlotte is a family law barrister at Goldsmith Chambers specialising in violence against women and girls. She tweets as @DrProudman. On 21 June 2019, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) announcedthe identity of the...
Children Cases in the Family Court – Interim Proposals for Reform (Private Law)
Following on from our post summarising the key recommendations from Mr Justice Keehan's Public Law Working Group which can be found here, we now turn our attention to the issue of private law. The Child Arrangements Programme (the ‘CAP’) was introduced as a Practice...
Children Cases in the Family Court – Interim Proposals for Reform (Public Law)
Today, the President of the Family Court Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, published interim reports from his Public and Private Law Working Groups. The President opened with a short statement on his concerns around both the rising volume of care cases before the...
‘Custody fights blight four in ten break ups’ – A word of caution?
This is a first post from Kelly Reeve, new contributor, who tweets as @s37CA89research. Kelly recently completed a socio-legal research study on the use of section 37 Children Act 1989 at UEA. She was formerly a legal adviser at Coram Children’s Legal...
Transparency Reform: as one door closes…
In May, the President of the Family Division published draft guidance to help those dealing with applications by reporters to relax reporting restrictions. The President published that draft guidance for consultation purposes and we've now submitted our response, in...
The Habberfields and the Hab-not-a-fields
This is a guest post by Charlotte John. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep." Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Last year saw an abundant crop of "proprietary estoppel" disputes between farming families, with no...
Does registering your baby make them “property of the State”?
[COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED] This is a post by "Annie", one half of our Project Coordination team at the Transparency Project. Annie is a birth mum who has experienced several sets of public and private law proceedings including a new-born removal, and that baby's...
Expert Witnesses: The Crisis in Family Courts
This is a first post from Malvika Jaganmohan, one of our new contributors. Malvika tweets as @MalvikaJaganmo1 Any family lawyer will tell you that finding a competent independent expert who can report in a timely manner is the Holy Grail of the family justice...
The family court in an era of austerity: problems and priorities – Sir James Munby
The online divorce project has been a “triumphant success”, according to a recent speech by Sir James Munby, but the family justice system as a whole is “inadequately funded and resourced”