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Keep it in the family

13 March 2015 / Lucy Cummin , Kate Molan
Issue: 7644 / Categories: Features , Family
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Kate Molan & Lucy Cummin warn against increasing transparency in the family courts

In the summer of 2014, Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division issued what many practitioners considered to be a radical consultation paper. The aim was to understand whether there is a need for the family courts to become more transparent as a way of improving public confidence in a much criticised system.

The president was firm that at every stage of the reform process there must be a clear consultation with those that might be affected and the paper invited views on four main issues:

1 Publication of judgments

The President wished to understand the impact of the new Practice Guidance, Transparency in the Family Courts—Publication of Judgments , since which there has been a huge increase in the number of judgments published on BAILLI in an attempt to demonstrate the careful decision-making process in family cases. However, much of the published material fails to make new law and leaves family lawyers, commentators and academics

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