Posts
The limits of family court influence over adult disputes about children Part II
There are three sides to every story - your side, my side and the truth. The judgment in Gibbs v Gibbs [2017] EWHC 1700 (Fam) was handed down on 29th June 2017. It raises some immediate and interesting questions about how the family courts deal with evidence and what...

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 COURTS CASES Notably accurate (or otherwise...

GUIDE FOR FAMILIES ABOUT THE PUBLICATION OF FAMILY COURT JUDGMENTS
We're very pleased to publish a new guide to help parties caught up in the family justice system navigate the complicated issue of publishing judgments about private family matters. Our guide aims to help those dealing with cases involving privacy issues affecting...

Charlie Gard – What Did The European Court Actually Say and Why?
As is now well-known, Charlie Gard's case reached the end of its legal road last week, when the European Court of Human Rights decided that his case, and the case brought on his behalf by his parents, was inadmissible. At the same time, it decided that the interim...

Court of Protection announcement on holding its hearings in public
With many thanks to Barbara Rich for explaining what this all means for people involved in CoP cases. Context and background When the Court of Protection was established in its present form in 2007, the relevant court rules were written to cover two separate...

How (and why) to tweet from the ‘secret’ and ‘shadowy’ Court of Protection
This is a guest post by Jenny Kitzinger, Professor at Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, and Celia Kitzinger, Professor in Sociology, University of York, co-founders of the Coma and Disorders of Consciousness Research Centre @CDOCuk...

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 COURTS CASES Inaccurate, misleading or distorting ...

Charlie Gard Update
We last wrote about the case of Charlie Gard when the European Court was still considering Charlie's parents' application. Since then the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) have rejected the application as inadmissible (decision here), meaning that the parents...

The limits of the court’s influence over adult disputes about children
The judgment in the case of T v S (Wardship) [2011] was handed down on 27th May 2011 but only recently appeared on the BAILII Twitter feed. I was interested, not only because it is a judgment of Hedley J - a reliably intelligent and compassionate Judge - but because...

An Example Of A McKenzie Friend Who Didn’t Help Anyone
In the judgment from a case called H (Children : exclusion of Mckenzie friend) [2017] EWFC B31 (05 March 2017), Her Honour Judge Atkinson sets out in detail, why permission to appeal an order banning a paid McKenzie friend from "helping" a mother involved in a dispute...