W (Children): judge’s recusal does not indicate bias

by Guest Post | Dec 18, 2020 | Cases, Comment, Explanation

This is a guest post by John Bolch, reproduced with kind permission from his Family Lore blog. Reading the case name W (Children: Reopening/recusal) I assumed that this would be another of those applications by a party, invariably the father, for the recusal of...

Changing a social worker’s statement without her knowledge – E (A Child : Care proceedings : Costs) [2017]

by Sophie Smith Holland | Dec 14, 2020 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

It is very unusual for a judge to make an order in care proceedings requiring a Local Authority to pay the costs incurred by the other parties. It is perhaps even more unusual for a Local Authority to accept that it messed up so badly that such an order against them...

Bell v Tavistock in the High Court: an explainer

by reporting watch team | Dec 9, 2020 | Analysis, Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

Last week, the High Court handed down the judgment in the highly publicised case of Bell v Tavistock (R (Quincy Bell) and A  v Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, and others [2020] EWHC 3274).  In this blog post, compiled by several members of the TP team, we...

Media coverage of family courts and domestic abuse – fake news?

by Lucy R | Nov 3, 2020 | Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

(Please note that this post was edited on 9 November 2020 to remove some inaccurate material) There are many legitimate criticisms of the way in which family courts have dealt with domestic abuse. They are well documented in the Harm Report (see our posts here and...

Challenging adoption – two recent cases

by Jack Harrison | Oct 26, 2020 | Analysis, Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

In this post, I am going to explain two recent decisions by the Court of Appeal about adoption. These are Re Y – which is about leave to oppose (I will explain), and Re JL which is about leave to revoke a placement order (I really will explain). These decisions are...

FS v RS and JS – A Most Unusual Case about the bank of mum and dad…

by Guest Post | Oct 19, 2020 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

This is a guest post by Jessica Smith, a newly qualified solicitor hoping to specialise in family law. Described as “a most unusual case”, the Family Court at the Royal Courts of Justice recently dismissed a forty-one-year-old son’s claim that the “bank of mum and...