Transparency overseas

by | May 10, 2015 | Comment, Transparency News, Trends

This weekend I have been at the Family Law Bar Association annual conference at Cumberland Lodge, which this year has an international family law theme. Yesterday we heard two really illuminating presentations from foreign judges, who told us all about how they do...

Jigsaw Identification

by | Apr 3, 2015 | Comment, Trends

This is a guest post by “Judi”. Judi is a parent who has been through the Family Court who has acted as a Litigant in Person and McKenzie Friend. Once upon a time, in this land places called courts used to have public counters that opened reasonable hours,...

My line in the sand

by | Mar 20, 2015 | Comment, Events

To ban or not to ban? We have had a debate about our ‘ground rules’ for the conference on 1st June. We have all agreed that, if there are people we have serious grounds to suspect don’t share our aims and objectives and those people are likely to try...

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers

by | Jan 22, 2015 | Comment

‘If I wait for evidence it can be too late’ – when dramatic licence goes too far   I watched the first half of Silent Witness: Protection on Wednesday via iplayer and smiled indulgently at some of the more anguished twitter responses to its...

The curious case of the judge with no name

by | Jan 15, 2015 | Cases, Comment, Explanation

There is an assumption in some parts of the media that the Family Courts are deliberately operating in a secretive manner in order to cover up the sinister conduct of social workers, doctors, and local authorities, and that is why hearings are held in private (ie in...