Observing a private law children case in the High Court

by Lucy R | Dec 9, 2020 | Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging

Last month I observed a hearing in the Family Division of the High Court under the Legal Blogging pilot. In some respects it was unusual – but it also featured some elements that were very familiar to me as a family barrister. This is my report of what I saw. TLDR :...

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...

CHALLENGING ADOPTION REVISITED: RE C AND REVOCATION OF PLACEMENT ORDERS

by Guest Post | Dec 6, 2020 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch

This is a guest post by Mark Senior. Mark was a Solicitor specialising in family law for 9 years before moving to the Bar in 2002. He is based in Liverpool at St Johns Buildings Chambers. He tweets as @grumpyoldbrief. At the end of October a friend and colleague...

Deprivation of liberty: Unlawful placements of children

by Julie Doughty | Nov 22, 2020 | Cases, FCReportingWatch

Can an English family court order the unlawful detention of a Welsh child? This is a surprising question currently before the Supreme Court in a case called Re T. The order I’m referring to was one made in the High Court of England and Wales so my question is...

“Did everyone see that? Because I will not be doing it again.” – Jack Sparrow

by Lucy R | Nov 6, 2020 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch

So what about that Johnny Depp case then? All right, it’s a libel trial, and it involves celebs, and it’s nothing to do with the Family Court – but there are some interesting similarities between how family courts treat domestic abuse and how it was dealt with...

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...