It’s Judgment Day
On Monday 3 February, new Guidance came into effect which aims to improve public understanding and confidence in the Family Court system by increasing the number of Court judgments which will be published.
Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, has issued the Guidance in respect of the Family Courts. There are also similar provisions which have been issued in respect of the Court of Protection.
The Guidance instructs judges that the starting presumption should be in favour of granting permission for publication, unless there are compelling reasons not to do so. Where publication would be in the public interest permission to publish should always be given by the judge even where there has been no request for publication by the parties or the media.
One issue which the new scheme hopes to prevent (or at least reduce) is inaccurate reporting in the media of Family Law cases which, until now, was inevitable as the media have been without the benefit of access to the Court judgments on which they are reporting. With access to Court judgments public debate on emotive issues, often the subject of Family Court and Court of Protection proceedings, can be better informed and more constructive.
To provide comfort to some of those involved in proceedings the Guidance notes circumstances in which judgments should be anonymised, for example for the names of children and their families, however the names of expert witnesses and local authorities are to be included, unless there is good reason.
This is a stark shift from a Court system which has historically made few Family Law judgments publicly available but it remains to be seen how these changes will be interpreted and applied by the Family Court.
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Family Law
PLancaster@LawBlacks.com
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Paul Lancaster
