Knocking at the door to the family courts: two journalists’ experiences, two years apart

by Louise Tickle | Oct 16, 2017 | Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Trends

Last month, senior BuzzFeed reporter Emily Dugan spent three days at Birmingham’s central family and civil court, researching a fascinating and in-depth article that detailed the effects of legal aid cuts on people who can’t afford a lawyer and who therefore...

But What About the Children? Hearing the Voice of Children and Young People in court proceedings

by Sarah P | Oct 13, 2017 | Events, Trends

On Monday 9th March 2017 I attended the Nagalro Autumn Conference which examined how children’s voices are heard in court proceedings about them. Nagalro is the Professional Association for children’s guardians, family court advisors and independent social...

Rights: privacy, anonymity and freedom of expression on family cases

by David Burrows | Aug 14, 2017 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Trends

‘Open justice’ in family proceedings   As a High Court judge (Mostyn J) has commented (in Appleton & Anor v News Group Newspapers Ltd & Anor [2015] EWHC 2689 (Fam), [2016] 2 FLR 1) rights to open justice in family proceedings are a mess; though – sad to...

Looking beyond the headlines: domestic abuse allegations in family proceedings

by reporting watch team | Aug 2, 2017 | Trends

This is a guest post from Dr Sue Whitcombe (@drsue2014), a psychologist working with high conflict family breakdown and parental alienation. It is re-posted with kind permission, having been originally published via Linkedin. A post from the Reporting Watch Team about...

10 cases like Charlie’s? Actually we’re not sure…

by reporting watch team | Aug 1, 2017 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Trends

We wrote earlier today about a Guardian article that suggested that there had been 10 cases like Charlie Gard’s so far this year (18 last year), and that they were being dealt with in secret. You can read that post here : Are there other cases like Charlie’s? We...

Are there other cases like Charlie’s?

by reporting watch team | Aug 1, 2017 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Trends

The Guardian reports there have been : Ten cases like Charlie Gard’s heard in English courts this year saying that “figures emerge as debate grows over merits of legal secrecy and high-profile public campaigns”. The Guardian says that the figures...