OPENNESS OF FAMILY COURTS

Today’s press release from the MoJ in respect of proposed legislative reform to further open up the Family Courts. Hmmm….More on this when I’ve had time to look properly…

The Final Straw

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has announced the second tranche of reforms in respect of the opening up of the family courts, reports the Times. It is no surprise that the government has announced its plan to relax the law in respect of reporting restrictions after the widespread disappointment voiced by the media when it realised [...]

The Prurient Eye

This case concerning the Spencer Divorce is the second case I have seen reported where counsel have tried to argue for privacy within ancillary relief proceedings – and failed. The characteristic of both cases is that the argument was focussed on ousting the media from the hearing in the first place, rather than on restricting [...]

Writing About Family Proceedings – A Blogger’s Guide

Thinking about telling the world about the injustice you have suffered at the hands of the family court system? Understandably many parents who have been through family court proceedings want to blog or write about their experience of trying to get contact with their son or daughter, or about how the state wrongly took their children from [...]

A Model of Neutrality

At least we can be sure that the accredited media who are now permitted access to the family courts can be relied upon to report lawfully, accurately and without bias or pathos…sorry, did I snigger when I said that? What a shocking piece of journalism / creative writing. There are self-indulgent English idyll flourishes (the reporter tells us [...]

Access All Areas?

A piece appeared in the Times last week accusing Family Courts of hiding information from parents, in particular relating to social services file. I must admit to being rather puzzled by this slightly muddled article. In the first instance within care proceedings the Local Authority is under a duty to provide a wealth of information at the outset of a [...]

Quite (Un)interesting

So today I was not sure whether to be disappointed that no journalists were queueing outside the family proceedings court waiting to watch and report on my efforts at wading through thick soup. No, we were not quite interesting enough for them to brave the Monday morning April showers, the WRVS Coffee or the anti-sleep bench [...]

Openness

This saves me the job of summarising the current position on the moves towards openness in the family justice system…