Can a court make a journalist reveal their source of information about a family court hearing?

by Julie Doughty | Jun 17, 2025 | Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Open Reporting

A recently published judgment, Louise Tickle v The Father & Ors [2025] EWFC 160 is helpful in reaffirming journalists’ rights to protect the confidentiality of their sources, specifically in the context of a Family Court case. This judgment about sources of...

Cross examination of medical experts – exceptional or exceptionally important?

by Lucy R | May 18, 2025 | Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging, Open Reporting

What this post is about When medical expert witnesses are instructed in family cases, usually to help work out how an injury to a child was caused, their evidence can sometimes be accepted by all the parties, in which case the expert doesn’t need to attend court to...

Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup: April 2025

by reporting watch team | May 5, 2025 | Cases, FCReportingWatch, Transparency News

Welcome to the Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family law, explain and comment on published family court judgments, and highlight other transparency news.  MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY LAW, TRANSPARENCY etc The BBC reported the sad...

Completing care proceedings in less than 26 weeks

by Julie Doughty | Apr 25, 2025 | Cases, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging, Open Reporting

I went to Cardiff Family Court as a legal blogger in two care cases this week. Reporting on them might give an inkling into how the most recent ‘refocus’ on the Public Law Outline (PLO) 26 weeks time limit is working out in the real world. We wrote about the refocus...

Abbasi – the Supreme Court finally hands down judgment on appeal about injunctions made to protect the identity of hospital staff providing end of life care

by Lucy Reed | Apr 19, 2025 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

A significant judgment about transparency was handed down by the Supreme Court this week – Abbasi and another v Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2025] UKSC 15. The case of Abbasi has been very long running, as has the case of Haastrup that has...

Exhumation where father’s coercive control undermined decision on place of burial

by Guest Post | Apr 15, 2025 | Cases, Explanation

This is a guest post by Frank Cranmer, reposted from the Law & Religion UK blog, about a matter of ecclesiastical law which overlaps with family law. It concerns the grant of a faculty, which is an order granted by the Consistory Court for a particular Church of...