Opening up the Family Courts: A Personal View

The Rt Hon Lord Justice Wall. This is an excerpt from an article based on the Association of Lawyers for Children Hershman-Levy lecture delivered by Lord Justice Wall in June 2006 in Birmingham:

'The President made it clear (as did I) that Clayton was not about public access to family proceedings. It is however I think a further step on the road towards transparency and thus prompts a wider discussion. Access to the family courts therefore is the real theme of this lecture and I think I need to make it clear where I stand on this. I emphasise that what follow are my personal views.

In summary I am in favour of giving the media and in practice this means the press access to family proceedings provided that there are clear ground rules about what they can and cannot report. In practice this means the extent to which if at all they are to be at liberty when reporting the proceedings to identify the parties and in particular the children concerned. Unlike the Constitutional Affairs Select...

Read the full article here.