Posts
Low morale, dilapidated buildings and ever increasing workload: why the Lord Chief Justice is concerned for the judiciary
This week the Lord Chief Justice issued his annual report for 2018. It does not make for comfortable reading. "I view the low levels of morale within the judiciary with considerable concern. The poor state of many of our buildings is a contributing factor. So too...
Shut out of the Process: Litigants’ Experiences in the post-LASPO Family Court
This is a guest post by Jess Mant, a lecturer in law at Cardiff University, who has undertaken research directly with unrepresented litigants about their experiences in family courts. Jess was recently quoted in a Financial Times article, ‘Justice for All?: inside the...
McKenzie Friends: Getting help in court if you don’t have – or don’t want – a lawyer
In March 2017 HHJ Carol Atkinson handed down judgment in the case of H (Children : exclusion of Mackenzie friend) (Rev 1) [2017] EWFC B31 (05 March 2017). Legal Futures and the Transparency Project wrote about it at the time, though this had slipped...
Sir James Munby sums up his views on transparency
Family Law publishes a regular column by The Transparency Project. This blog post originally appeared in the October 2018 issue, [2018] Fam Law 1342. The outgoing President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, gave a press conference...
Call for Greater Transparency for Generation Tagged
‘Who knows what about me?’ This week the Children’s Commissioner’s published a new report, which touches on important issues about how children need greater protection in today’s digital world. The ‘Who knows what about me?’ report explains that ‘data...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup
Correcting, clarifying or commenting on media reports of family court cases Explaining or commenting on published judgments of family court cases Highlighting other transparency news MEDIA (MIS)REPORTS OF FAMILY COURT CASES The Guardian - We questioned Families Need...
Imprisoned Harts
I thought I should update the blog post I wrote about the acrimonious case Hart v Hart, because there have been new developments. I take full responsibility for the increasingly bad titles. You can find the original post here. It concerned how their several million...
An impressive judgment about a ‘car crash’ of a case
On 18th October 2018 Her Honour Judge Lazarus handed down judgment in the case of Z v Kent County Council (Revocation of placement order - Failure to assess Mother's capacity and Grandparents) [2018] EWFC B65 (18 October 2018). I was interested to see what the media...
Fathers’ group claims parents and lawyers fraudulently claim legal aid (again)
On Saturday 13 October, Families Need Fathers sent us a document called Analysis of Post LASPO Use of Non-Molestation Orders and said it was embargoed until the following Monday. On Monday morning, the Guardian published Parents 'weaponising' domestic violence...
The progress of Reform: Autumn 2018 update
HMCTS have been holding regular events to update court users and get feedback on its massive ongoing Reform project. The latest such event, which took place at Westminster University in London last week, was focused on family law. Among the major developments on...