COVID-19 and family courts: Links in one place to new arrangements

by Alice T | Mar 21, 2020 | Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Transparency News

Published 21 March 2020. Updated 29 June 2020 There’s been a flurry of guidance in response to the pandemic. We’ve gathered some useful links (with key definitions) to help families, advice workers and professionals find and use practical information more...

Transparency Project News Jan 2020

by reporting watch team | Mar 19, 2020 | FCReportingWatch, Transparency News

This blog post originally appeared as the Transparency Project’s monthly column in Family Law for January 2020 at Family Law [[2020] Fam Law 118. Legal blogging We were thrilled to be awarded the Bar Pro Bono Innovation award, for our work on the legal blogging pilot,...

The President’s guidance for the Family Court on Covid 19

by reporting watch team | Mar 19, 2020 | FCReportingWatch, Transparency News

The President, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has issued the following national guidance and asked that it be shared widely: SIR ANDREW MCFARLANE  PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILY DIVISION AND HEAD OF FAMILY JUSTICE  COVID 19: National Guidance for the Family Court  19th...

Secret babies – non-notification of dads and extended families

by Lucy Reed | Mar 16, 2020 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

Last year, we wrote a post about non-notification of fathers about family court applications where there was a history of violence or abuse, in particular where a child had been conceived of rape (See : When should I apply for permission not to notify a father about a...

“In the battle between the parents both children risk being run over by the tanks”

by Julie Doughty | Mar 13, 2020 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

This judgment, startlingly, comprises 500 paragraphs, although with a helpful List of Contents added by HHJ Dancey, at Bournemouth Family Court. The case is called JD and another v VB and others [2020] EWFC 16. The judge’s opening paragraphs [1-4] grab attention: “In...

How technology almost thwarted the family courts again (Z (A Child: committal proceeding))

by Malvika Jaganmohan | Mar 11, 2020 | Analysis, Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch

Z (A Child: committal proceeding) [2020] EWFC B5 (24 January 2020) concerned committal proceedings (i.e. proceedings about whether a party should be sent to prison) within a broader private law dispute between two parents over their child, ‘Z’.  Father...