A Crisis in allocating social work ‘Guardians’ to vulnerable children? And other news from the last Cafcass Open Board meeting 

by Alice T | Mar 5, 2022 | Events, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Transparency News

Cafcass have led for some time in opening certain board meetings to stakeholders and pre registered members of the public, and consistently lodging minutes on their website albeit a few months later. They now lodge not just the agenda but also the CEO report to every...

Going off piste: how far beyond the local authority’s ‘threshold’ allegations can the court go in the findings it makes against parents?

by Guest Post | Mar 1, 2022 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

This is a guest post by Iain Large. Iain is a practising barrister and a member of St John’s Chambers in Bristol. He is a specialist in both public law children proceedings and private law disputes involving children, financial and property matters. He tweets as...

Legal blogging: an appeal from a fact-finding hearing

by Julie Doughty | Feb 21, 2022 | Cases, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging

Over the past few weeks, I attended three online hearings in one case, as a legal blogger. The judge has given me permission to write on it (but more on that, see final paragraphs below). The case was an appeal to a circuit judge, HHJ Levey at Portsmouth Family Court,...

FAMILY COURT REPORTING WATCH ROUNDUP

by Alice T | Feb 20, 2022 | Cases, Comment, Consultations, FCReportingWatch, Transparency News

Welcome to this month’s Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family court cases, explain and comment on published family court judgments and highlight other transparency news MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY COURT MATTERS The Independent –...

What is ‘gaslighting’ and what does it mean in family court cases?

by Julie Doughty | Feb 11, 2022 | Cases, FCReportingWatch, Trends

We have noticed assumptions that family courts are familar with the terms ‘gaslighting’ and ‘being gaslit’, but is the meaning widely known and understood? A straw poll suggests not. This post will look at the origins of the concept, and its...

Local authority support services in Wales and private law contact disputes: Re R-E

by Julie Doughty | Feb 5, 2022 | Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

This judgment, Re R-E (Contact: Support from local authorities in Wales) [2021] EWFC B95 from Pontypridd Family Court, published on BAILII a few days ago, has a number of unusual features. One is the outcome, that direct contact was found not to be in the...