The Muslim Foster Carer Case – the final chapter

by reporting watch team | Sep 10, 2018 | Analysis, Cases, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

Last autumn we covered the so-called ‘muslim foster carer’ case, over a number of blog posts (you can find those posts here). This week, just as we’d given up hope of ever finding out what happened to the little girl at the heart of the case, the...

Hit on the head by an old chestnut

by Polly Morgan | Jul 19, 2018 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

The hoary chestnut, the ‘meal ticket for life’, has fallen from the media and hit us squarely on the head again. This time, the impetus is a Supreme Court case called Mills v Mills. Back when it reached the Court of Appeal, one of my colleagues here on the...

Supreme Court emphasises councils’ duties to inform parents fully about s. 20

by Julie Doughty | Jul 18, 2018 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

“Parents with parental responsibility always have a qualified right to object and an unqualified right to remove their children at will (subject to any court orders about where the child is to live). Section 20 gives local authorities no compulsory powers over...

Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans and R (A Child): Why A Medical Treatment Significant Harm Test Would Hinder Not Help

by reporting watch team | May 22, 2018 | Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

This is a guest post by Katie Gollop QC and Sarah Pope. Katie represented Great Ormond Street hospital in the Charlie Gard case, and tweets as @katiegollop Sarah and Katie appeared in the recent case of Re R (A Child) [2018] EWFC 28. Sarah tweets as @sbvpope. Shortly...

The Abuse of Alfie’s Rights: A Gilded Death is Still a Death

by Allan Norman | May 18, 2018 | Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

Introduction: #AlfiesArmy v #ImWithAlderHey – an unbridgeable divide? Alfie’s life, his legal battles, and his death, have polarised opinion. Decent people on both sides of the debate have been able to acknowledge how awful it must be to be in this situation –...

Alfie Evans, best interests, and parental rights

by Polly Morgan | May 18, 2018 | Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Notorious

By now, we all know the terrible story of Alfie Evans, who spent 16 months of his two years of life in hospital as his brain turned to water and cerebral spinal fluid and who died following the removal of life sustaining ventilation. I say ‘we all know’, but the...