Posts
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...
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 Oxford Mail - We've barely commented on...
Press regulation: the end of the road for Leveson reforms
On 1 March 2018 the government announced that it would not be proceeding with the second stage of the Leveson Inquiry, and would seek to repeal section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013. This post explains the background to that decision and assesses where that...
Dealing with sex abuse: How does the Family Court assess risk?
In the latest in her series of lectures on Transparency in the Family Justice System, Gresham Professor of Law, Jo Delahunty QC considered the problems faced by the courts in dealing with family law cases involving allegations of child sex abuse. A warning Jo...
Crisis in care – crisis in confidence?
In November 2017 Family Rights Group launched an enquiry into the causes of the increasing numbers of children in care and in care proceedings. No doubt there are many such causes. As we noted in September [2017] Fam Law 1048, those causes probably include...
The role of transparency in rebuilding public trust and confidence
As we noted in 'Transparency Project News' in July [2017] Fam Law 778, August 2017 is the third anniversary of Sir James Munby's Transparency – the next steps consultation (still available on the judiciary website). We also noted that those responses that were...