Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup

• Correcting, clarifying or commenting on media reports of family court cases
• Explaining or commenting on published Judgments of family court cases
• Highlighting other transparency news

 

MEDIA (MIS)REPORTS OF FAMILY COURTS CASES 

 

As yet unclear

Police investigating drug testing lab that carried out tests for the Family Court.  Initial commentary from Family Court Reporting Watch here in response to today’s Mirror report: Hundreds of kids could have been torn from parents in ‘fake blood test’ scandal (and earlier reports)

 

Family Lore cite this report at Care Appointments : HIGH COURT BAN ON JOURNALISTS NAMING WOMAN IN CHILD PROTECTION CASE CRITICISED

 

Notably accurate (or otherwise transparency positive) reports

Notwithstanding the sensationalist headline (Hull baby killer Liam Laverick’s cruel campaign of domestic abuse revealed in shocking report) and absence of an online link to the report itself, the Hull Daily Mail thoughtfully report the Serious Case Review about the death of Tommy-Lee Laverick-Whitworth, aged 27 days, at the hands of his father who shook him and abused his mother.

 

Justice Gap delved deeper into the case of Buckinghamshire County Council v Andrew & Ors [2017] EWFC B19 (26 April 2017) and interviewed Effie’s parents (albeit without linking to the judgment):

 

Louise Tickle (also of the Transparency Project) wrote for the Guardian on the notoriously ill-understood topic of ‘coercive control’:

 

The BBC drama Three Girls raised awareness of child sexual exploitation, inspiring unusually high volumes of reporting and commentary:

 

 

Inaccurate, misleading or distorting

We disagreed with suggestions The Times reported in ‘Call to End Divorce Secrecy’, that not routinely naming the parties to financial applications means they are secret, and discussed public interest and the need for informative listing here:

 

Misleading headline

The Sun with ‘Accused dad of ‘abused’ tot Poppi Worthington to trouser thousands more in legal aid for inquest’. Here’s why:

 

Local News Matters:

 

 

NEWLY PUBLISHED CASES FOR EXPLANATION OR COMMENT

 

A (A Minor : Fact Finding; Unrepresented Party) [2017] EWHC 1195 (Fam) (19 May 2017) – Mr Justice Hayden sets out the legal framework for fact finding and stridently condemns a Family Justice system in which a Judge still cannot prevent a victim being cross examined by an alleged perpetrator. Our blog here :

 

 

B (change of residence; parental alienation), Re [2017] EWFC B24 (22 March 2017) – The judgment from an ‘ordinary’ family court decision that a child had been alienated from her father by her mother and should move to live with her father:

 

IN OTHER TRANSPARENCY NEWS

Where does explaining the law and being an apologist for the legal system begin and ends?:

 

Myths and Monsters of Child Protection: The Open Nest Conference 2017:

 

Too many reports on what party manifestos pledge for Family Law and Justice (including legal aid) and Press Regulation to feature here. The Law Society Gazette is the only attempt to compare and contrast each manifesto in one place by topic seen so far – here Law and Justice. No doubt there may be other summaries by topic we have yet to see or that will shortly be published:

 

 

 

Feature pic: Courtesy of Flickr Lauri Heikkinenon via Creative Commons licence – thanks