Posts
SERGEI AND YULIA SKRIPAL AND THE COURT OF PROTECTION
What are a person’s best interests in a decision to permit use of samples of body fluids or tissue for a purpose which is neither of direct therapeutic benefit to the person him or herself, or an act of direct altruism towards another person? The law of mental...
Fit for the future: transforming the court and tribunal estate – the Transparency Project’s response to the MOJ consultation
The Ministry of Justice recently ran a consultation on the future strategy for HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) in its approach to court and tribunal estate reform, viewed in the context of the current digital modernisation programme. The consultation was...
Legal Bloggers attending family court hearings
We've written before about cases where we wished we'd been present alongside journalists to report on a case, to see if we saw the same things, or selected the same information to report. And we've regularly challenged, corrected or explained not very good reporting...
Bloomin’ eck! Divorcing fraudster named and shamed but the papers ignore it
Search for 'bloom divorce' on google and all you get is items about Orlando Bloom's 'painful separation from his wife Miranda Kerr'. This post is about a different and altogether less attractive Mr Bloom (no, not the one off CBeebies either). THIS Mr Bloom is a...
Worboys : Parole Board transparency and parallels with family courts
This week, the Judicial Reviews of the Parole Board's decision to release serial sex offender John Worboys were successful. Apart from quashing the decision and sending it back to be reconsidered on better evidence, the High Court also struck down that bit of the...
Family Court Reporting Watch Round Up
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 Daily Mail - We questioned whether Justices...
When Expert Evidence Goes Wrong – the lessons to be learned
C (interim judgment on expert evidence) [2018] EWFC B9 (24 January 2018) This is an 'ordinary' family judgment but noteworthy because it shows: The considerable dangers of expert evidence which is not based on clear facts or reliable clinical practice; How criticism...
Why the Court of Protection gave permission for blood samples to be taken in Skripal poisoning case
The alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy now living in England, and his daughter Yulia, in Salisbury earlier this month has been prominently reported in the news. Investigations into the nature of the military-grade nerve agent allegedly used on...
Q : What happens when you break an order made by the family court? A : Prison, that’s what
There have been a couple of examples of family court judges sending people to prison for deliberately ignoring their orders. Although it doesn’t happen very often, as judges prefer to find another way to deal with matters where possible, family judges can and do send...
Judge tells lawyers off for talking over one another in court
In a judgment published on the BAILII website this week, a High Court Judge, Mr Justice MacDonald has criticized barristers involved in a case concerning the contact a 13 year old girl should have with her father, for the way they constantly interrupted one...