Draft of new transparency measures, including publication of more decisions, aims to increase learning opportunities for professionals, as well as public confidence in the system
Family courts hearings opened up to media reporting
The Family Courts will be opened up for public scrutiny. and the secrecy of the past will hopefully be a thing of the past.
Accredited bloggers and journalists we be allowed in but the children and parents names will still be protected.
President of the family division Sir Andrew McFarlane stated that a culture shift to open justice was required.
The publics trust would be achieved by opening up the family courts while keeping the parents and child’s names and other issues confidential. the hearings are mostly in private to open up the family courts would prevent the loss of public confidence.
Sir Andrew also stated that there would be a short consultation with a trial of allowing the journalists to report cases from cases in a urban area and one in a rural countryside areas.
The pilot scheme would establish communication with local and national media to ensure that unforeseen circumstances could be dealt with before a national role out of the plan.
To be honest after going through the family courts myself after my son fractured his tibia and we were accused of non accidental injury I would of been very unhappy if journalists were allowed to report on my case we were vilified by the court in the first instance and journalists would of done the same.
In a blog yesterday I mentioned that our son was returned to us after the powers to be backed down and said the fracture could of been caused accidentally.
Our son was returned to us and diagnosed with OI brittle bone disease 6 months later.
A similar case to ours was highlighted in the press by a journalist that had been inside the family court at the time of one of the hearings he deemed the parents to be evil child abusers after the parents had been accused of non accidental injury via their daughter unexplained fracture.
The child was returned home to her parents after a diagnosis of OI brittle bone disease.
Sometime later the same journalist wanted to highlight children taken wrongly into care and he approached the parents who he had deemed evil child abusers months earlier the parents would not give an interview but he reported on the case without mentioning their name .
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