OPCA – Organised Pseudolegal Commercial Argument; the Canadian Perspective

  We are grateful to this post from our Canadian contributor who goes by the alias of “Hilfskreuzer Möwe” and who can be found on http://www.quatloos.com/Q-Forum/ For a general summary of OPCA litigation and the Freeman on the Land phenomenon, see our post here.  OPCA litigation – the Canadian Perspective Most of us Freeman/Sovereign/OPCA commentators are […]

Getting information from foreign countries in care proceedings

Resources The information set out here, is a summary from the three documents below. The President’s Guidance from 2014 The International Child Abduction and Contact Unit (ICACU) (judiciary.uk) The ICACU’s guidance on completing the request form icacu_request-for-co-operation-guide.docx (live.com) Protecting Children and Families Across Boarders [CFAB] Kinship assessment guidance CFAB | International Kinship Care Guide. This […]

Fact finding in private law proceedings – where are we now?

This is the text of a presentation at the St Johns Private Law conference on 14th June 2023 To have or not to have a finding of fact hearing is a key decision in proceedings. Relationships that are ending up in court have ended badly. The adversarial process is undoubtedly harmful to parties and finding […]

Systemic Failings in the Family Justice System

Everyone knows it isn’t working – what can we do about it? And what should we STOP doing? This is the presentation I gave to Families Need Fathers on 18th March 2023 The focus of my talk will be on the private law children system – care proceedings also face significant barriers to effective and […]

Can a local authority restrict a child’s use of a mobile phone?

I was recently asked to consider a case involving a 16 year old child in local authority care, following fears of child sexual exploitation. The local authority wanted to apply to the court for permission to put ‘spyware’ on the child’s mobile phone, in order to monitor any conversations the child was having with those […]

The Care Review

We have oppressive system that purports to be about child protection – but parents and children are frightened of us #cpchange2016 — CPResource (@C_P_Resource) February 19, 2016 We all know the care system isn’t working. Conference after conference, review after review over the last 20 years tells us so. In 2014 I helped to set […]

Time for Climate Change in the Family Justice System

The Family Justice Council held its annual Bridget Lindley Memorial Lecture and conference in Bristol on April 6th 2022. Helen Adam gave the keynote address. She is a mediator and Chair of the Family Solutions Working Group who published in October 2020 ‘What about Me? Reframing Support for Families following Parental Separation, capturing a range […]

Children’s Consent to Medical Transition

The Court of Appeal decision in the Bell v Tavistock case. This is a post by Sarah Phillimore. I will be discussing these issues at a webinar organised by EBSWA on September 30th. Please join us. Summary Over recent years, considerable debate has arisen over the consequences of medical intervention which aims to allow ‘gender […]