Over the last few years, the Family Courts in England and Wales have been trialling a Reporting “Pilot” whereby journalist and legal bloggers have attended court hearings. Known as a Transparency Order, from 27 January 2025, the scheme was extended to cover public law (care proceedings) cases in all courts before Judges, with this being extended further from 1 May 2025 to include private law children cases (e.g disputes about child arrangements on separation – where the child shall live, how much time they shall spend with each parent). From 29 September 2025, all children cases before Magistrates will also be covered and a pilot is still ongoing for financial cases.
A Transparency Order allows journalists and legal bloggers to attend and speak to families involved in a case, request and quote from court documents, and ultimately report on what they see and hear in court. The condition to this however is that families must remain anonymous, and nothing is to be included in any reporting that may identify those involved.
If you are going through court proceedings, you may be concerned about how this may affect you, and the impact this may have if an interest is shown by a journalist or legal blogger in your case. If you are concerned regarding the impact of this, please do contact the team.
Our specialist family lawyers can review your specific circumstances, and we recommend obtaining advice at the earliest opportunity. We offer a free exploratory call so that we can match your specific needs with the right person in our family team. For more information or to arrange an appointment with a member of our Family Team, please contact us on 01206 764477. The team can offer advice at one of our offices in Colchester, Chelmsford, Frinton-on-Sea, Ipswich or Bury St Edmunds, or by telephone or video appointment. We are also pleased to be able to support Blue Light members and offer a discount on our initial fixed fee meeting.
