Posts
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup: July 2025
Welcome to the Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family law, explain and comment on published family court judgments, and highlight other transparency news. MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY LAW, TRANSPARENCY etc The BBC reported that 'I...
14 year old boy taken to Ghana – Appeal judgment
In June, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal by a 14 year old boy against a High Court decision that his parents had lawfully taken him from his home in the UK to Ghana, where he’d been left at a boarding school. You can read Sanchia Berg’s story here. We included...
Legal blogging – placement order for adoption of a baby
I wrote in April about an earlier hearing I’d attended in this case at Cardiff Family Court before District Judge Saunders. This had originally seemed a sad but straightforward case of an abandoned baby for whom adoption would be the right outcome. Care...
A failed reunification plan
A 13 year old boy was refusing to obey High Court orders that he spend time with his mother following his parents’ separation. After three years of failed attempts to persuade him to see her, the court asked the Tipstaff’s office to enforce an order that he be...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup: June 2025
Welcome to the Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family law, explain and comment on published family court judgments, and highlight other transparency news. MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY LAW, TRANSPARENCY etc The Times (£) reported...
‘If I had to live with mum I’d jump out of the window’ – Why two boys ended up living with their dad
On the day I saw them trot across the court waiting room on the way back from meeting the judge, Jamie and Andrew* were 10 and 14. I didn’t know that at the time, to me they looked smaller, younger. But the visit seemed to have gone well, as best I could tell from...
Can a court make a journalist reveal their source of information about a family court hearing?
A recently published judgment, Louise Tickle v The Father & Ors [2025] EWFC 160 is helpful in reaffirming journalists’ rights to protect the confidentiality of their sources, specifically in the context of a Family Court case. This judgment about sources of...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup: May 2025
Welcome to the Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family law, explain and comment on published family court judgments, and highlight other transparency news. MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY LAW, TRANSPARENCY etc The Observer ran a piece...
Child protection and domestic abuse – a legal blogging report from Cardiff Family Court
The circumstances in this case may sound all too familiar to some readers. A child aged ten was terrified of his mother’s violent male partner and is now living with his grandparents. The local authority (LA) had applied for an interim care order (ICO). The good news...
Can secret recordings be used as evidence in court?
If you record a meeting or conversation about your children, without people being aware you’re recording them, can you then produce and rely on that recording as part of your evidence to a family court? This is a question that has been hanging around for several years...