Posts
Legal blogging – parents’ evidence in a private law contact dispute
Attending a case under the Reporting Pilot at Cardiff court recently, two questions arose for me that might be recognised more widely in private law disputes: How does a judge manage a fair hearing where one party is represented by a barrister and the other party has...
New reporting pilot for Financial Remedies Courts
The 'Reporting Pilot' currently operates in three family courts with regard to cases about children. A new pilot is to begin in cases about financial disputes on divorce. The following press release was sent out by the Judicial Press Office on 14 December: ***...
What happened to the Ks?
Further to our post on the Court of Appeal judgment in April 2022, 'K v K – Court of Appeal give guidance on fact-finding hearings and on MIAMs', here is an in-depth analysis of the developments in the Re K case. Many thanks for this guest post by Charlotte Baker, a...
Transcript reveals what one judge really thinks of transparency
I begin this post by saying frankly that the transcript I have just read is shocking. If I had been told what was in it, I would not have believed it. Not so much the individual errors, but the combination of so many things gone wrong in one single transcript. Before...
When a judge prefers his own biases to the law, all is lost
“If you want to know my view on the transparency project, it is not supportive. I have always felt these cases are deeply private, and my judgments are there really for the parents, to help them, to help the families, they are not for public consumption or to allow...
Behind closed doors – a transcript from a private hearing
In August this year, a journalist attempted to observe the first day of a multi-day final hearing in a private children case. She was refused access by the judge, His Honour Judge Haigh. The following day, another journalist [Louise Tickle, who is a member of The...
The Cafcass in-house psychological service – our unanswered questions
We wrote about the Cafcass in-house psychology service 'that no one seemed to know about' back in April and again in October. We received replies on 10 November from Cafcass Governance to our follow-up freedom of information questions. We weren't satisfied with these...
Pilot’s Progress
Some news. The Reporting Pilot now running in 3 courts will shortly be extended to Magistrates in those courts. The Reporting Pilot will be rolled out in a number of other courts from January 2024. As with the first 3 pilot courts the new courts will first bring...
National Psychology Service – Still in the dark
UPDATE 25.11.23: We have now received replies to our follow-up questions and will publish these, and our views on them, next week. In April we wrote a blog post: The ‘Psychology Service’ for family court cases that nobody seems to know about:...
Open Justice Today – speech by the Lord Chief Justice
In one of his last speeches before retiring as the head of the judiciary of England & Wales, Lord Burnett of Maldon congratulated the courts on the way technology had enhanced open justice through live streaming, media access to remote hearings, and the...