The is a post by Sarah Phillimore, with a significant contribution by two parents; a mother who nearly ran and a father who has now lost a relationship with his child. I am very grateful to both commentators. In our various exchanges we have at times doubted each other’s good faith but have persevered to try and have […]
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 […]
A ‘fact finding hearing’ does what it says on the tin. It’s the way in which the civil courts attempt to find out what happened when people disagree about the facts. Or, to be more accurate, it ‘finds’ facts on the balance of probabilities, which is the civil standard of proof. So if the Judge […]
Heads You Lose: Tails You Lose Sarah Phillimore writes: I am grateful for this post from Emma Sutcliffe, part 4 in our series ‘why does everyone hate the family courts’? Emma’s previous post on this topic can be found here. The family justice system is very much in the public eye at the time of writing […]
This is a post by Sarah Phillimore Too long didn’t read: there is a problem what I shall call the ‘DV Sector’, for want of a better title. There are a number of individual women and organisations who garner a lot of media attention, who have books and talks to promote and apparently the ear […]
I am grateful for Emma Sutcliffe for this guest post. Its been an interesting month for thinking and talking about why the family court seems to inspire such strong and invariably negative feelings. I first wrote about this on January 8th where I shared two narratives from two parents – a mother and a father, […]
This is a post by Sarah Phillimore Am I a ‘troll’ or a ‘leading professional’? The answer seems to depend on whether or not I am agreeing with someone’s particular narrative at a particular time, rather than on the quality of my arguments and the state of my evidence. I have been distracted from the […]
This is a post by Sarah Phillimore I was delighted to be asked to speak on July 27th 2019 by Make More Noise. As the organisers say: There has been a surge of Feminist activism across the UK in the past year. Women are agitated and organised. We are finding our voice and our voice […]
Sir James Munby: Children Across the Justice Systems. 2017 Parmoor Lecture to the Howard League for Penal Reform. https://t.co/zKh1P1dyIR pic.twitter.com/RgyCvPxxJM — Judicial Office (@JudiciaryUK) October 31, 2017 Thanks to our regular contributor Looked After Child for her thought provoking comment about policies and who pays, following the President’s recent speech. Fragmentation of services […]
This exchange began after I read a press release for the documentary The Stolen Children of England (Les Enfants Voles D’Angleterre), that was shown on French TV Canal 5 on 15 November 2016. I commented about how uneasy that made me here. I was then sent a English language version of the documentary which I […]