If your ex takes your child to the other end of the country should the court treat it as abduction?

by reporting watch team | Oct 22, 2016 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

The Court of Appeal has clarified the question of how courts should deal with cases where one parent takes a child to live in a distant part of the country without the agreement of the other. The case is Re R (Child) [2016] EWCA Civ 1016 (20 October 2016) and the full...

The terrifying tale of how Britain’s most secret court imprisoned a grandmother (AKA Court enforces its own orders and publishes judgment for the world to see)

by reporting watch team | Oct 21, 2016 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

This week Christopher Booker, chose this as his topic for his Sunday Telegraph column :   The terrifying tale of how Britain’s most secret court imprisoned a grandmother   This is of course a very worrying headline. The article itself is also likely to...

The Court of Protection’s not so secret anymore, but the press don’t seem to have noticed

by Julie Doughty | Oct 15, 2016 | Cases, Court of Protection

In the words of the song, the ‘secret’ Court of Protection is ‘no secret anymore’ because since January 2016, hearings are held in open court, unless the circumstances are exceptional. Applications for committal for contempt are always held in...

Litigants in person – getting court documents well before the hearing begins

by Paul M | Oct 7, 2016 | Cases, Explanation

Conducting your own case as a litigant in person (LiP) is hard enough as it is, without being given a massive bundle of the other side’s documents and law reports at the door of the court, just as the hearing is about to begin. Last week a judge in the High Court...

Re W – The Wrong end of the stick?

by reporting watch team | Oct 7, 2016 | Cases, FCReportingWatch

[Edit 17/10/16 : The Daily Mirror Various newspapers] this week reported a family case about adoption. We think they have got it rather wrong. The article is by Brian Farmer, and is titled “Grandparents win court fight to stop grandchild they didn’t know existed...

Giving a clear and simple judgment: how hard can it be?

by Paul M | Sep 16, 2016 | Cases, Comment

Newspaper reports of a judgment released this week have concentrated on the use, by the judge, of an emoji – probably a first in the Senior Courts. But the judgment is far more interesting for the way the judge, Mr Justice Peter Jackson, has written it so that...