Blog
The view lengthens…
Last week saw the publication of the latest 'View from the President's Chambers' (a label adopted by the current President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, but coined by his predecessor Sir James Munby to describe his regular 'state of the system'...
Deprivation of liberty: Unlawful placements of children
Can an English family court order the unlawful detention of a Welsh child? This is a surprising question currently before the Supreme Court in a case called Re T. The order I'm referring to was one made in the High Court of England and Wales so my question is not...
What About Me? Reframing Support for Families following Parental Separation
Some have wondered how the working group charged with reform proposals for private law family cases will integrate learning from the Harm Report (on better protecting victims of domestic abuse and their children) within the emerging direction of travel for private law...
What is the evidence that mediation works in child protection?
The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory have just published the findings of a rapid evidence review on child protection mediation, in the form of a summary and full report: Both the Family Justice Review led by David Norgrove back in 2011 and the Care...
Remote Hearings in the Family of Courts of England and Wales: what the research shows
This is guest post by Eve French. Eve has just completed her Law Conversion course at BPP University and is currently working as a paralegal at Simpson Millar Solicitors LLP. Following a mini-pupillage, Eve was asked by 4PB to write a paper on the impact of the...
“Did everyone see that? Because I will not be doing it again.” – Jack Sparrow
So what about that Johnny Depp case then? All right, it’s a libel trial, and it involves celebs, and it's nothing to do with the Family Court – but there are some interesting similarities between how family courts treat domestic abuse and how it was dealt with in the...
Lockdown 2 and contact – what are the rules?
This is a short post to set out the impact that the Regulations coming into force at midnight at the start of Lockdown 2 will have on contact between parents and child. The regulations and this post apply to England only. General During lockdown 2 it will be unlawful...
Media coverage of family courts and domestic abuse – fake news?
(Please note that this post was edited on 9 November 2020 to remove some inaccurate material) There are many legitimate criticisms of the way in which family courts have dealt with domestic abuse. They are well documented in the Harm Report (see our posts here and...
Headlines from the latest Cafcass open Board Meeting
The Transparency Project get regular invitations as stakeholders to the two board meetings Cafcass (England) try to hold in public every year to promote transparency, engagement and trust. There’s been a gap because of Covid but we attended (virtually) the latest...
Appealing an arbitration award
This is a guest post from Deborah Dinan-Hayward. Deborah is a family barrister at Albion Chambers, Bristol. The question the court had to decide recently was what was the test to be applied by the court in those cases where the parties had agreed to arbitration, but...