Posts
Owens v Owens: nobody panic
Owens v Owens is a Supreme Court decision about divorce, specifically about the level of behaviour needed to obtain a divorce on the basis of a spouse’s behaviour. Although we commonly refer to this as ‘unreasonable behaviour’, the proper wording says: 'That the...
Domestic Abuse – exaggeration is not required
This week in the House of Commons, during a debate about Domestic Abuse and the Family Courts, Jess Phillips MP said this : ...There is often friction among specialist women’s organisations, the judiciary and lawyers with regard to issues to do with violence against...
The Progress of Reform – or lack of it. The PAC’s Transforming Courts and Tribunals inquiry report
At the beginning of June the Transparency Project submitted written evidence to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee‘s Transforming courts and tribunals inquiry. (You can read our summary of all the written evidence here.) The PAC’s inquiry was prompted by a...
Hit on the head by an old chestnut
The hoary chestnut, the ‘meal ticket for life’, has fallen from the media and hit us squarely on the head again. This time, the impetus is a Supreme Court case called Mills v Mills. Back when it reached the Court of Appeal, one of my colleagues here on the...
Supreme Court emphasises councils’ duties to inform parents fully about s. 20
"Parents with parental responsibility always have a qualified right to object and an unqualified right to remove their children at will (subject to any court orders about where the child is to live). Section 20 gives local authorities no compulsory powers over parents...
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 BBC News and the Telegraph - We commented on...
Press reporting on Family Courts
Family Law publishes a regular column by The Transparency Project. This blog post originally appeared in the June 2018 issue, [2018] Fam Law 750. In this month's column, we consider some issues about newspaper coverage of family courts and the wider context of court...
Are ‘Thousands misusing abuse orders to get legal aid?’
Twitter commentators asked questions last week of a BBC headline: Thousands misusing abuse orders to get legal aid, says parenting charity And the 'click-bait' opening sentence of the story itself: Families Need Fathers says parents are being encouraged by some...
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 Sky and BBC News - Wrongly suggested that...
About that civil partnership case ….
There’s been a great deal of misunderstanding and misreporting around Wednesday’s Supreme Court judgment about civil partnerships*. Civil partnership was introduced by the Civil Partnership Act 2004 and is presently open to same-sex couples only. It was therefore a...