Family Court Secrecy - legal position reviewed

SUMMARY OF WEBSTER RULING (Mr Justice Munby)

The birth parents applied to have media attendance at the care proceedings for their fourth child as they claim that serious miscarriages had occurred with the adoption of their previous children and that reporting the issue would help to prevent further injustice. In his judgment, Munby J reviews all the key authorities covering the reporting of family proceedings and concludes that the proceedings should be opened to media representatives.

John Hemmingway MP has looked at Munby's Judgment and analysed what he thinks it means.

John Hemmingway MP says:

"This is important as it means that people can talk publicly about the cases they were involved in - when it has finished - as long as they don't use any of the court documents or discuss what actually happened in court. That is without applying for permission.

The amended information rules from 2005
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2005/20051976.htm
mean that you can send a copy of the judgment to any elected representative or Peer. Elected representative means an MP, AM or MEP. That does not have to be your own elected representative. Anyone with concerns about a judgment can send details to me with a copy of the judgment. Remember, however, that I cannot deal with any substantial load of casework and, therefore, are working in conjunction with affiliated campaigns on casework. It does allow some central recordkeeping as to the nature of problems, however."