1. Entitlement to attend
Do you have an in-date Press Card issued by a body accredited by the UK Press Card Authority? Only holders of press cards are entitled to attend family courts and report under the Pilot rules.
2. Giving notice to the court
You do not need to give the court notice to attend any hearing you are entitled to observe, but it is always appreciated if you can. It also helps the judge prepare the Transparency Order, and gives them time to inform all parties involved in a case. Notice can be given by email to the court office the day before (contact details should be online if you search “X family court”), or as early as you wish to send it.
3. Transparency Order
A Transparency Order (linked to here) must be issued at the start of a case you attend at a pilot court, in order for you to be able to report. It is the mechanism that switches the presumption from journalists not being able to report, to a presumption that we can. Reporting must be strictly anonymous. The terms of anonymisation are set out in the Order, and can be added to – or reduced – upon application to the court. Make sure you follow the terms carefully, and be prepared to provide the order to your legal team.
4. What if someone objects to a journalist being in court?
A party might ask a judge to rule that a journalist must leave a family court hearing either before it starts or once it has begun. The request must meet one of four criteria, as explained in this document (linked to in full here). The test for ruling that a journalist should be excluded – it must be “necessary” – is a high one. If this application is made, you should be asked for your view; you can object, and explain why you don’t agree. The judge will then decide. It is unlikely that a judge will rule that you must leave.
5. Anonymisation
If someone asks for additional exclusions to be added to the Transparency Order – to further anonymise a child, for instance – think about whether you need that detail to make editorial sense of the story. If you don’t, you can opt to agree. If you believe that the detail is editorially necessary for a reader to understand the full import of what has happened, you can say so, and explain why you think so. Are there other facts you don’t need, which are identifying but not editorially crucial? The judge will then decide.
6. Interviewing parties
The Transparency Order gives permission for you to talk to and quote anyone involved in the case who agrees to speak to you outside court. Anything you do quote must not contravene the terms of the Transparency Order.
7. Documents
The Transparency Order entitles you to certain documents, which you can then quote from (abiding by the terms of the Transparency Order). These documents are: case outlines, skeleton arguments, summaries, position statements, threshold documents, and chronologies. It also includes any indices from the court bundle (indices are useful, as it may show you that certain documents exist which you can request the court to permit you to read, and possibly report from).
You should be given these documents by the lawyers/parties at the start of the hearing (usually by email). If you’ve not been given them, stand up before the hearing starts and explain to the judge. Without documents, you will likely struggle to understand what is going on in court, and they help with accurate reporting of the issues in the case.
8. What is a case about?
All family cases have reference, made up of letters and numbers. Within that reference will be a C or a P. C is for a care case. P is for a private law case (ie, disputes about children between separating couples).
Pilot courts should be using the Listings Code (via the Courtserve listings system) to help journalists understand the issues involved in a case. Not all are, yet, but if they do, it will look like a series of numbers after the main case reference.
You need to cross reference this against the Listings Code. For example:
1 = alleged neglect
2 = alleged physical harm
6 = alleged FGM
12 = medical treatment.
There are also letters to look out for which help you understand which cases you have access to:
A = a hearing reporters may not attend
B = a case you may attend but not within the pilot (you can still request for a Transparency Order to be made)
C = a case within the pilot.
9. Key data/stats on the family justice system
The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory has prepared this backgrounder document for the benefit of journalists attending hearings during Family Court Reporting Week.
10. Good luck!
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