DIY justice

This is both a summary and a review of BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, Panorama, which last week tackled the issue of legal aid cuts and the phenomenal rise in the number of litigants in person (LIPs) now using the courts in civil and family cases. The...

Jigsaw Identification

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,...

Wood for Trees

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...

Adoption Targets & Bonuses

I couldn’t really nail this in my “follow the money” pieces (part 2 here), but it is important. I was thinking that a starting point might be an FOI request to the Department for Education, and had in mind these questions   1. Has the UK...