A new case on the ‘shaken baby’ problem

by Julie Doughty | Oct 20, 2019 | Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

TP and TS [2019] EWHC B51 concerns baby twins who had been born prematurely at 31 weeks and who subsequently experienced serious physical trauma that may have been attributable to their parents. The good news is that the court has arrived at a conclusion that the...

‘The problems are huge’: teenagers in care living in caravan parks

by Julie Doughty | Oct 11, 2019 | Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

HHJ Dancey explains at the outset of this case, Dorset Council v A (Residential Placement: Lack of Resources) [2019] EWFC 62 that he has spoken to A, aged 15, about his intention to ‘tell her story’ and that he is writing the judgment with her and her...

BAILII and the re-use of judgments as public legal information

by Paul M | Oct 1, 2019 | Comment, Transparency News, Trends

For all practical purposes, the free legal database run by the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) is an official source of judgments from senior courts that any member of the public or any journalist can use. But while anyone can read individual...

Nothing else will do.

by Annie Surviving Safeguarding | Sep 26, 2019 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

This is a post by Annie, one half of our Project Coordination team, author of Surviving Safeguarding; a parents’ guide to the child protection process and a birth parent who has been through several sets of concurrent public and private law proceedings. Annie now...

Human Rights Court criticises adoption case from Norway

by Julie Doughty | Sep 20, 2019 | Cases, Comment, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

The case of Strand Lobben and others v. Norway 37282/13 raises issues about the human rights of birth mothers in adoption proceedings. In the context of all the discussions currently going on about human rights in adoption, it’s disappointing, despite having gone...

Lomax v Lomax – must parties consent to Early Neutral Evaluation process?

by Paul M | Sep 17, 2019 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, Explanation

In an appeal from a decision made by a family judge in an inheritance dispute, the Court of Appeal has ruled that the consent of the parties is not needed for a court to order them to submit their case to an ENE, or “early neutral evaluation”. So what...