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Transparency updates from the family court
(1) What was introduced as the Reporting ‘Pilot’ in 2023 is now a permanent change in family courts, to allow more reporting by journalists and legal bloggers. Within a few months, reporting will be easier in almost all family court cases. More at the Transparency Project blog here. (2) As…
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End of year open justice updates
Four important developments to note here, as we approach the end of 2024. First: Spotlight on Corruption (a founding member of this network) won a major open justice precedent in a case involving allegations of Ministry of Defence cover up and collusion in a defence bribery scheme in Saudi Arabia – for the first time in…
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What happened to the Government’s 2023 consultation on open justice?
Back in September 2023, many members of this network provided written submissions to the Ministry of Justice’s consultation on open justice. We collected and published some of them on this site. Every so often, we ask each other whether anyone has heard anything more, but no-one has. Obviously, there has…
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First ever ‘Family Court Reporting Week’ is launched by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
To encourage more reporting on the life-changing decisions that take place in family courts, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) will run a series of events, mentoring and practical “at-court” support for journalists around the country as part of its first Family Court Reporting Week, running for five days from Monday…
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Justice system reporting recognised with the Paul Foot Award
An investigation into “conveyor belt justice” by Tristan Kirk, courts reporter for The Standard, has won the 2024 Paul Foot Awards. This is an annual prize for investigative journalist set up by Private Eye in memory of its reporter, the late Paul Foot who died twenty years ago. As Courts and…
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Transform Justice: Public access to courts is essential for justice
Author: Transform Justice / CourtWatch London In the past few months, someone who wanted to watch a trial has been ejected from the court, a duty solicitor has allegedly been assaulted by security staff and a lawyer has complained of a security search in which she had her leg felt…
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Transparency & Open Justice Board announced
Giving the keynote speech at the Society of Editors 25th anniversary conference on 30 April 2024 the Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr of Walton-On-The-Hill, announced the establishment of a new Transparency and Open Justice Board, to be chaired by Mr Justice Nicklin. She said: “8. Its aim is to examine and modernise our approach to…
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Open Letter on HMCTS guidance: LCJ responds
Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill has responded to our recent open letter pointing out a worrying series of errors in published guidance from HM Courts & Tribunal Service on public access to court hearings and information. The Lady Chief Justice acknowledged that the HMCTS advice wrongly suggested that laptops could…
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Anonymisation of civil judgments: a routine failure to follow open justice rules
Open justice includes a presumption that parties to litigation conducted in public should be named, though there are circumstances where that presumption may be displaced. But any such derogation should be justified and explained. In civil cases an order should be made, after weighing the pros and cons, and reasons…
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Open Letter to the LCJ: HMCTS guidance on public access to courts
Dear Lady Chief Justice, We write on behalf of the Courts and Tribunals Observers’ Network, a UK-based initiative focused on how the public can be supported to observe courts and access court information in digital and physical environments, to express our concerns about a guidance document (“the Guide”) entitled “How…
Courts and Tribunals Observers’ Network 