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...

Wood for Trees

by | Jan 13, 2015 | Comment, Trends, Uncategorized

Transparency is about understanding not information. Quality not quantity. Substance not form. So more judgments ≠ more transparency. And more open courts ≠ more transparency. And more and more and more and more and more information on a single website ≠ more...

How transparent can we be?

by | Jan 7, 2015 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, Project

As its very new, we’re still feeling our way through how we will run this project – and we have recently had to deal with the thorny issue of what the limits are on comments about individual cases. We have an “Editorial Policy” here, which sets...

Children identified – a deterrent to parents?

by | Dec 22, 2014 | Comment

This article from the Press Gazette explains why the judge thought it right to identify the members of this family, who were involved in an international abduction case (or ‘tug of love’ in media-speak) What do people think? (I’ve yet to see how it...