Re Z: A family court decision to share serious abuse findings with Social Work England (with guidance)

by Malvika Jaganmohan | Mar 12, 2023 | Analysis, Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

Last month, there was a fair bit of media interest around a High Court battle before Mrs Justice Knowles involving a senior social worker who had been found by the family court to have perpetrated domestic abuse towards his ex-partner. HHJ Ahmed, the judge...

Deprivation of Liberty and the black mirror

by Jack Harrison | Mar 2, 2023 | Analysis, Cases, FCReportingWatch

Is removing a mobile phone and access to social media a deprivation of a child’s liberty, or just something that a parent should be entitled to do? Mr Justice Macdonald gives us his answer in Manchester City Council v. P (Refusal of restrictions on mobile phone)...

Mind the Gap – the welfare decisions for H-N, a child (PART TWO)

by Alice T | Dec 7, 2022 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging

PART TWO  This is Part Two of a report from observing a final hearing in the Central London Family Court as a legal blogger and applying for the usual statutory bar on reporting to be lifted, so as to be able to publish this anonymised report. Part One is my...

Mind the Gap – the welfare decisions for H-N, a child (PART ONE)

by Alice T | Dec 7, 2022 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging

This is a report from observing a final hearing in the Central London Family Court as a legal blogger and applying for the usual statutory bar on reporting to be lifted, so as to be able to publish this anonymised report. It’s split into two parts as it’s long. Part...

A tale of two experts

by Malvika Jaganmohan | Oct 8, 2022 | Analysis, Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

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:...

Transparently clunky – Mostyn J and transparency orders before the Court of Protection

by Guest Post | Aug 10, 2022 | Analysis, Court of Protection, Explanation

This is a guest post by Alex Ruck Keene, reposted with permission from the Mental Capacity Law and Policy blog. In Re EM [2022] EWCOP 31, Mostyn J expressed a number of concerns about the transparency order made in the case before him by Keehan J, in ‘broadly...