Senior judge vows to publicise the work of family courts
High Court judge Sir James Munby has vowed to shine the ‘full glare of publicity’ upon family courts amidst declining public confidence in the system following a series of miscarriages of justice.
Munby, who heads the High Court’s own family division, called for gagging orders on journalists to be lifted to allow them to report on court proceedings and for parents of children taken into care to be allowed to speak out.
Speaking to the Society of Editors in London Munby conceded that ‘human justice is inevitably fallible’, mistakes which are all the more serious in situations whereby a child is removed from their parents.
The call for greater transparency would affect divorce and adoption proceedings as well as decisions pertaining to those without the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves.
Munby added: “It must never be forgotten that that orders of the kind that family judges are invited to make in public law proceedings are amongst the most drastic that any judge is empowered to make.
“We strive to avoid miscarriages of justice, but himan justice is inevitably fallible. We must have the humility to recognise that public debate, and the jealous vigilance of an informed media, have an important part to play.