Care proceedings and chronic neglect

by Julie Doughty | Oct 24, 2025 | Cases, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging

Six children, aged between two and twelve, were removed from their parents’ care because they had suffered chronic neglect and emotional harm, after court proceedings that had lasted 28 weeks and local authority involvement for 12 years. I’ve written about two...

An order for ‘no contact’ at West London Family Court

by Julie Doughty | Oct 10, 2025 | Cases, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging

Earlier this month, I attended a private law hearing held at West London Family Court before His Honour Judge O’Donovan. The judge made a transparency order at the beginning of the hearing. There are some unusual aspects to this case, including a section 91(14) order...

Updated Guidance: What to do when a reporter attends your hearing

by reporting watch team | Sep 29, 2025 | Legal blogging, Open Reporting, Resources, Transparency News

We first published our Guidance Note ‘What to do when a reporter attends (or wants to attend) your hearing’ in 2023. Later, we updated it to account for the expansion of the Reporting Pilot and introduction of the Financial Remedies Pilot, developing two...

A happy ending in Cardiff Family Court

by Julie Doughty | Sep 1, 2025 | FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging

7 November 2025: CORRECTION AND APOLOGY: We have now learnt that the email address we had been using for the local authority lawyer in this case was not an active inbox and she had not received the emails we’d been sending. We apologise for this...

Children left with harmful parents because of lack of foster carers

by Julie Doughty | Aug 18, 2025 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging

A local authority (LA) applied for care orders for six children in March 2025. At the case management hearing (CMH) I attended in April,  and wrote on here: ‘Completing care proceedings in less that 26 weeks’, a strict timetable was set out by the judge to ensure...

Legal blogging – placement order for adoption of a baby

by Julie Doughty | Jul 28, 2025 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging

I wrote in April about an earlier hearing I’d attended in this case at Cardiff Family Court  before District Judge Saunders. This had originally seemed a sad but straightforward case of an abandoned baby for whom adoption would be the right outcome. Care...