The Changing Family Court

By Clare Louise Westwood

Opening up the closed world of the family courts was marketed as being a victorious event. Just a year previously hundreds of hearings held in private were made accessible to the public with details such as parent contact and children being put into care becoming public knowledge. This movement was the result of a campaign instigated by father's rights groups, politicians and a leading newspaper.

One year on and the question of what has happened is poised. After a big initial show of interest from the media they have now decided to stop reporting on family law cases except in rare and high profile incidents due to a restricting reporting regime.

During the autumn of last year Jack Straw began the process of opening the family courts knowing that he had only given the media half of what they needed in order to carry out their job properly in these matters. The result of this was the creation of the Children, Schools and Families Act 2010 which was, in some people's opinion, somewhat rushed.

Judges, lawyers and children's charities were all quick to condemn the idea of more details of cases becoming made public due to the potential harm to children and possible identification and tracking down of suspects.

There were also concerns that by naming witnesses people would be put off giving evidence meaning vital information from figures such as doctors, social workers and police could be missing.

The result of the opposition of the bill has meant that in actual fact we have ended up with the exact opposite of what Jack Straw had initially said. The reason for this is said to be down to the way it was rushed through Parliament.

It is expected that local papers will no longer bother to report on these cases due to the complexities of what they can and cannot include and the time limits they are under in order to go to press. Even lawyers who were against the opening up of more evidence have concluded that the current rules do not work.

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