Actually, the only thing my cat has is fleas. Cat sized ones.
But yes, I have been uncharacteristically silent on the blogging front.
I am so concerned that I might lose my blogging mojo if I don’t write something soon that here I am. Just.
I have a whole to do list of blogs I’m desperate to write. Right now though I’m practically nodding off, face in keyboard, so you just get the list of things I might write if I ever have the time :
- audio-recording social work and CAFCASS interviews with parents – why not?
- human rights act damages claims
- recent cases – judicial attitudes to LiPs
- recent cases – legal aid
- recent cases – robust criticism of failures of first instances judges, local authorities and others
- Freud does Frozen
In the meantime let me leave you with this question which I posed earlier on twitter : what is WITH the new fad for referring to Mr Justice Mostyn or Ms Justice Russell or Mrs Justice Theis as Justice Mostyn or Justice Russell etc?? Where has this new simplified mode of address come from? I have seen it all over the place – on twitter, on Linkedin, in articles online – and not just in the mainstream media who traditionally prefer “Top Judge” for anything above Circuit Judge level – this is people within the legal community. Has there been an edict or new style guide? Makes them sound like Magistrates if you ask me (who we are now required to call “Lay Justices” but who are often shortened to “Justices” when not being referred to as “Magistrates”).
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Sorry. That was my forehead typing…… Quite literally #headdesk
Off to bed to dream of blogs I may never write….
We’ve done all those, Lucy – and ‘Freud does Frozen’ was last summer, surely.
As to Mostyn J: I blame the plain speakers and Lord Woolf (who would not permit Norman or Latin words to creep in). Most of us know that Dr = doctor, and M in front of a French name means Mr in French; so why not J after a name (it’s only a slight variation) for Mr/s Justice (you can only find out the gender by… well, there are ways). Just as a dictionary will tell you what ‘garnishee’ means (and your vocab will be enriched) so too you can learn what J after a name means (and n/paper editors will be pleased as it takes up less room on the page).
‘Justice Lowell Goddard’ is the name, says the press, of the NZ judge who is to chair the CSA inquiry. I just thought that’s what they call them there. You say it’s creeping further. A justice is a magistrate – always has been; and a J is a High Court judge. Harumppph
Well bah humbug to you too Mister Burrows. It may be last summer, but it it is still going strong in our house (sadly). Only today I am planning on swinging by Asda to buy my 4 y/o an Elsa dress for his birthday on Saturday. 😉
When all High Court Judges were male, or even when so few were female that it was easy to remembber which they were, journos and others could easily use the correct form. The world has changed and so many of them are women that you can no longer be sure (mark my words, they’ll be letting women vote next . . .) and lazy writers use Justice to avoid checking. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.
Is there not some disagreement between female members of the Court of Appeal about whether they are to be referred to as Lord Justice Bloggs or Lady Justice Bloggs? It should be a no-brainer: the Act under which they are appointed specifies the former and unless and until that is changed Lord Justice it should be. Like the Lord Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls. And female Masters in the High Court.
It’s very odd that in French a female Mayor is Mme or Mlle le Maire but a female Minister is Mme or Mlle la Ministre. But then: some years ago a French legal journal had an article about the odder aspects of the English legal system (damned impertinent, by definition the English legal system is perfect and therefore cannot be odd . . .) one of which was that appeal judges who were not married were expected to carry a heavy burden of paperwork. The author had misunderstood the expression “a single judge”. Un juge celibataire!
Will be interested in seeing your audio recording piece. It is something that comes up a lot when I train social workers. My take is that I’d draw a distinction between recording a visit or an interview and recording a contact session – the latter can have an impact on the child if the parent is playing to the camera, so I wouldn’t be keen. The former I think is better to just let them do it than protest. I know that people find it awkward and intimidating, but if you’re not going to do or say anything that you’d be worried about being shown in Court, it is better to just let them do it. I can’t see many Judges being that interested in hours of footage, but that’s by the by.
[I also have a lot of social workers on courses saying “But what about my human rights” and not quite appreciating until I help them, that it is the State who owes human rights to individuals, and not the other way around. I’m afraid in that setting, you are the State and the parent is the individual]
Yes, still on my to do list Andrew. But I was also thinking that recording in the presence of children is a very different thing.