Blog
Family Court reporting pilot courts
From 30th January 2023, the current postion for the media or legal bloggers who attend family court hearings will change in three courts. Under a pilot scheme introduced by Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division, it will no longer be necessary for a...
Logan Mwangi – the Child Practice Review and the family courts
This blog post will not go into detail about the distressing history of five year old Logan Mwangi, with which we are all too familiar through media coverage of the trial of the three people who were responsible for his death. An impression had been given at that time...
FGM: Bad-faith actors and unintended consequences
This is a guest post by Georgia Fineberg about the case of Nottingham County Council v OA & Anor [2022] EWFC 102 (17 August 2022). Georgia is a pupil barrister who has worked for nine years in the women's voluntary sector, primarily supporting...
Transparency Project on social media
We are now on Mastodon, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram (occasionally!) and (for the time being) Twitter. Our Mastodon account is - @seethrujustice.mas.to. We're still working that new platform out! If you don't already follow us please feel free to go and...
Open Justice : Court Reporting In The Digital Age
On 1 November 2022 the House of Commons Justice Committee published their report : Open Justice: court reporting in the digital age. Whilst not limited to matters relating to Family Justice, the report contains a significant section dealing specifically with Open...
Hague Mothers
'A good law gone bad' is how the Hague Convention on International Abduction was described in a session organised by the Filia Hague Mothers project at an international feminist conference held in Cardiff over the weekend. The Convention was drafted in 1980 and...
The Relaunch of Family Mediation
I've been working in and around family and child law for more than 30 years, during which several different UK governments and departments have discovered family mediation, as if the first time. 'Mediation is quicker, cheaper, less stressful, more empowering' etc etc....
A tale of two experts
Two judgments caught my eye in the last few weeks, adding to the body of case law relating to the conduct of experts who provide evidence in the family courts. One expert came out pretty well; the other… less so. Let’s start with the positive, shall we? (Warning:...
LAW COMMISSION – CONTEMPT OF COURT PROJECT – Memorandum by Sir James Munby
The below memorandum was prepared by Sir James Munby for the consideration of the Law Commission who are currently running a project concerning the possible reform of contempt of court. It is published with their agreement....
Albert Squarely inaccurate
This post is by Delia Minoprio. Delia is a family law barrister at 1 Crown Office Row specialising in all aspects of children work. She tweets as @familylawdm A child protection storyline is no stranger to the scripts of BBC TV’s Eastenders....