Family proceedings being heard in the Court of Appeal will be broadcast online so the public can watch, in a legal first for such cases.
However, the proceedings will be streamed with a 90 second time delay to allow court clerks to stop the transmission, so that the hearings will not be streamed in real-time.
The reason given for the transmission lag is to ensure any ‘disruptions’, or reporting regulations breached during the broadcast are caught before they are streamed online.
Furthermore, the cameras will only face the Judges’ Bench and the Bar, obscuring parties from view, limiting the scope and context of the transmission.
The initiative was announced on March 12 by the government, and is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts & Tribunals Service. The press release says the project has been deigned to boost transparency inside the system.
It is not clear whether the project, which places discretionary powers in the hands of the judiciary to decide wether or not to allow a case to be live streamed for public viewing, will feature those cases which involve serious miscarriages of justice by children professionals, lawyers and even judges.
These cases have become increasingly of concern, as this site and others continue to investigate and expose a worrying number of proceedings which involve malpractice and law-breaking by professionals inside the family courts.
In a statement included in the press release, Terence Etherton, The Master of the Rolls, and Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division issued a joint statement which said:
“Many of our most significant cases come from the family jurisdiction. It is only right that cases of such wide public importance are made open to the public. Recent examples of cases looking at issues such as Islamic faith marriage, access to fertility records, or transgender identity are of interest to the public and it is important for the public to see how the court approaches these issues.
We are of course mindful that in some cases, full public access would not be appropriate, we will ensure that those involved in such cases remain protected.”
Where families request their privacy, those requests will be considered. They will receive a written notification ahead of the video transmission to inform them they have been selected and will then have the chance to raise any objections, either by phone or in writing.
Before any live coverage of these cases can be watched, which could potentially encompass both private law (divorce and child contact cases) and public law (care proceedings), legislation will have to be implemented.
The press release explains that a statutory instrument has been put before Parliament to enable the project to launch.
Nominated cases will be streamed on the judiciary website, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
You can access the full press release here.
Researching Reform 
All I want is the social services to admit they were wrong to take my grandson from a loving caring law abiding family and return him home where he belongs but the so call professional people and the judges won’t admit they done wrong innocent families are being torn apart at the hands of these people and it needs to be stopped I wish I could get on tv I would tell them exactly what I think of them for to have a child removed from the family home you need concrete evidence that child is in danger and my case they was absolutely nothing these people don’t know the harm they cause on the child in the future but my grandson will find the truth out eventually
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I want the papers, everyone to know what’s they have done to our families too..I want my grandchildren back too..I’ve tryed papers but they dont want to know,they only want to know when extremes happen like when a child is killed in care etc..I want to tell my story of how our grandchildren are taken from us when we havent ever hurt them,in my case,the local authorities failed and to cover up they blamed my family.
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As I always say ;”Who cares whether these boring courts are open to the public or not,?” Most of the time journalists (who are allowed) don’t bother to go due to draconian reporting restrictions.No names and no reports of what is actually said in court.
FAR MORE IMPORTANT Parents themselves should have their FREE SPEECH restored and should be able to protest via the media when their children are taken;
They should be allowed to invite who they like into court,be represented by whoever they choose,and above all should be allowed to protest without censorship via the press,TV,and social media naming who they like subject of course to laws of libel and slander.
At present they regularly get jailed for daring to protest publicly when their precious children are snatched by the “SS”.
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No one is interested in what innocent families go through and the impact on the poor children it’s just power and money I hate those people and the law it is a joke because kids that are in danger don’t get help that is what annoys me
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I totally agree,our children have no voice,no human rights involved.
Our grandchildren were very happy and what hurts the most is how their mental health is going to be affected,its inhumane,cruel,as are causing these kids emotional harm by snatching our kids and giving them to strangers!
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Well said xx
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About as useful as the Corona virus. They’re both diseases – the family court even at appeal is just diseased from top to bottom. It’s a bit like the Nazis allowing the holocaust to be filmed live. I don’t know any cases that have got to the court of appeal after permission stage. It is a joke shop. The court of appeal should not be part of the family court system. Just keeps old bastards in jobs as far as am concerned. Am not expecting Natasha to post this.
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