Author Archives: suesspiciousminds

Private law, infinite appeals and IT naughtiness

Posted on July 23, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

The case of Re N (Children) 2015, http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/OJ/2015/B98.html involves a private law case with 3 children, aged 11, 9 and 6.   Her Honour Judge Atkinson had to deal with a novel and delicate point of law on an appeal.

The children all live with their mother, and the dispute has been about the time that they spend (or do not spend) with their father.

In this case, the mother made a series of very serious allegations against the father, of physical abuse. The father faced criminal trial for these and was acquitted.  the mother then sought findings against him in the family court proceedings.  That was complicated by the last minute addition of a rape allegation.

In any event, the District Judge who heard the case dismissed all but one of the allegations, which he found was proved in part. The finding that was made would not have been a barrier to contact, and really contact should have resumed.

However, mother then appealed that decision, and the appeal was unsuccessful.

She then made a subsequent appeal, and it is that subsquent appeal that gives the case its novelty.  I am not naming the DJ here – it is in the linked judgment if people want to see it, but I took a call that the interest in the case is in the legal issue rather than any naming and shaming of the DJ himself.

 

  1. On 17th March 2015 District Judge B was removed from judicial office following an investigation into an allegation that he had viewed pornographic material on judicial IT equipment in his office. The material did not include images of children or any other illegal content. However, this was considered to be an inexcusable misuse of his judicial IT account and “wholly unacceptable conduct for a judicial office holder”.
  2. On 18th March, together with an enquiry as to the progress of their application for an oral hearing, solicitors acting for the mother wrote to the court lodging a fresh ground of appeal based on the fact of DJ B’s dismissal and its apparent association with sexual matters. Ground 10 argued his lack of judgment, as demonstrated by his dismissal, and argued that the pornography added a sexual element to that lack of judgment directly relevant to the issues that he had tried in this case.

 

The case got still more complicated, because at the appeal, mother sought to withdraw the appeal – not because she accepted DJ B’s findings but because she had realised that there was a finite pot of money for her legal representation and if she went ahead with the appeal there would be little or none left for the remainder of the proceedings.   (Grounds 1-9 here were the ones that had previously been rejected in the previous appeal, ground 10 was the “as the Judge has been sacked for viewing pornography, his judgment is questionable and he was not someone who ought to have been dealing with sexual allegations” angle)

 

  1. So it was that on 11th June 2015, 6 months on from the decision made by DJ B that there was no evidential basis for the assertion that this father has been the perpetrator of violence or sexual abuse against the mother or violence against the children, the mother’s appeal was listed before me to hear. On the day before the hearing the mother’s representatives contacted the court and the father’s representatives stating that she intended to withdraw her application for permission. They asked for the case to be vacated and directions made to enable the matter to proceed as directed by DJ B. The father’s team, shocked by the sudden turn of events refused to agree the vacation of the hearing and the parties nevertheless appeared before me.
  2. I note that the mother does not retract these allegations. Nor does she state that she is accepting of the findings made. Her main motivation in withdrawing from the appeal is cost – not that she will be saddled with a bill of costs but rather, she risks not having enough left in her publicly funded pot to continue to be represented after the appeal has been concluded. A secondary consideration was, it would seem, the “welfare of the children” and the impact upon them of this continuing litigation. Unsurprisingly, the father expressed his concern that if given simple permission to withdraw her appeal then these allegations would almost certainly surface to be litigated again in some form or other.
  3. Accordingly, although I have decided to give permission for the mother to withdraw her application for an oral hearing in relation to Grounds 1-9, I have decided to do so only after I have made a decision on Ground 10 effectively as I would have done on the papers. By this means there will have been a merits based decision recorded on each of the Grounds.

 

 

That, I think, was a good call. It would otherwise have always been hanging over the case.  In case anybody else is envisaging an appeal on similar grounds to Ground 10, this might pour some cold water on it

 

 

  1. Ground 10
  2. I turn now to the additional Ground which reads as follows: “the decision of the DJ in this matter related to various matters of a sexual nature…

    it demonstrates the poor exercise of Judgment in relation to matters of a sexual nature…it demonstrates poor exercise of judgment more generally…justice has to be seen to be done and the public would have no confidence in this DJ dealing with a matter of a sexual nature”

  3. The skeleton argument develops two arguments between paragraphs 88 and 93:

    a. The removal of the District Judge from office demonstrates that he had conducted himself in a manner inconsistent with the high standards of judicial office expected of the judiciary and shows a lack of judgment which is undermining of his decision making generally;

    b. The sexual nature of the behaviour leading to dismissal demonstrates that his judgment in “matters of a sexual nature has been found to be impaired” and the public cannot be expected to have confidence in his decision making as a result.

  4. I give permission to appeal only if I consider that there is a real prospect of success or there is another compelling reason why the appeal should be heard. To succeed on the substantive appeal the mother will need to show that the DJ was wrong or that the decision is unjust by reason of some other serious procedural or other irregularity in the proceedings.
  5. I have now read all of the papers lodged in what was to be an oral application for permission. I have not heard oral argument and so the decision which follows is effectively made on the papers but on a considerable body of paper. I am quite satisfied that the appeal on Ground 10 has no reasonable prospect of success and indeed I consider it to be without merit. I will explain why.
  6. The lack of judgment arguably demonstrated by the District Judge through misconduct in his office does not necessarily infect all areas in which he has to exercise Judgment. District Judge B was dismissed because of inappropriate use of judicial IT. It does not follow that he has thereby demonstrated himself incapable of making a proper judicial decision. If it did it would mean all of his decisions would be null and void following his dismissal. That simply is not right.
  7. The argument does not become different or stronger simply because his misuse of judicial IT involved the watching of pornography. In the first place it is important to note that he was not dismissed for viewing pornography. In any event, the viewing of pornography does not of itself suggest that he would have disbelieved an allegation of rape. It does not suggest that his approach to the sexual element in this case would be in any way skewed or biased. Had he been viewing such material in the privacy of his own home that would not have rendered him unable to make a determination in the case.
  8. The best way to determine whether District Judge B carried out a proper judicial exercise of discretion is by examining the detail of his Judgment. I have done just that and the transcript reveals a Judgment that is in my assessment beyond complaint. It contains all necessary directions on the law. It gives full and detailed reasons as to why he found the evidence of the mother lacking and why she failed to establish her case to the appropriate standard. As I have already rehearsed, the mother has been unable on the papers (in spite of the numerous and voluminous skeleton arguments in support of her appeal) to establish any basis for criticism.
  9. Accordingly, I find there is no basis for the granting of permission in relation to Ground 10.

 

 

Where you might, I suppose, have stronger grounds for appeal is for example if the decision-maker in an Employment case where the allegation against the employee was illicit use of IT for this purpose and the decision-maker had found in favour of the employee  (where you’d be wondering whether the decision was a ‘kindred spirit’ / ‘there but for the grace of God’ scenario)

 

[It does occur to me that if you are a Judge doing nothing but private law conflicts, where you are just hearing people say “no” all the time, one can perhaps see why DJ B wanted to just listen to people saying “yes yes yes oh yes” once in a while]

 

There’s a rather sad postscript to the judgment

  1. Finally, the mother at this hearing indicated her desire to move on from these matters and look forward. She expressed a willingness to be guided by professionals. I was encouraged by that until it became clear that the professionals that she has put her trust in are currently limited to Norfolk County Council, specifically the author of the s.37 report, who has advised against face to face contact between the children and their father with no clear plan as to how this situation can be improved.
  2. It was made clear at the hearing that the Guardian may not be of the same view. Disappointingly, it was far from clear that if that be the case this mother will be accepting of the Guardian’s advice. I felt it necessary to record this position as a post script to this Judgment.
  3. The court has determined that there is no evidential basis for the allegations made against the father by the mother. He has been through two Crown Court trials and one trial of the facts in the family court. Six months have been wasted on an unmeritorious appeal. Meanwhile these children have not seen their father now since November 2011. If the mother’s concern is for the welfare of her children as she has insisted then going forward she will have as her aim how she can best assist these children in re-establishing their relationship with their father

 

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High Court expresses doubt that the inherent jurisdiction covers the ‘name and shame’ CSE cases

Posted on July 21, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

 

Readers will probably be familiar with the case of Riaz, where Keehan J was invited to use the inherent jurisdiction to make injunctions preventing a group of men who were believed to pose a sexual risk to children from associating with children, and also allowed them to be named in the national press.

Child Sexual Exploitation (Birmingham injunction case)

 

At the time and still, I have mixed feelings about that case.  As a society, we do desperately want to do something to protect children from Child Sexual Exploitation, and we have to face the reality that criminal prosecutions often cannot get off the ground where the child does not want to make the complaint or give evidence. And at the moment, the only remedy to protect such children is Secure Accommodation – i.e locking them up for being victims, which doesn’t sit well with anyone.

 

Therefore, when Keehan J announced that he was using the inherent jurisdiction to make injunctions that would prevent men suspected of sexually exploiting children from spending time with children, in a ‘bold and innovative’ move, I was really hoping that it would be a robust mechanism that could be deployed by Local Authorities.

 

However, when I saw the judgment, I was concerned that it was placing a great deal of weight on the concept that inherent jurisdiction has theoretically limitless powers. I wondered whether it was robust enough if the men who were being subject to the orders sought to challenge the power to make them.

And so it has proven

 

London Borough of Redbridge v SNA 2015

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2015/2140.html

 

The London Borough made their application, before Hayden J, set out that they relied on the Riaz case as authority for making the application and no doubt confidently thought that if they could persuade the Judge to the civil standard of proof that these men were more likely than not to pose a risk to children, the order would be made. However, the power to make the order was challenged.

 

The limit that Hayden J draws is the one that myself and Martin Downs of counsel observed at the time – the inherent jurisdiction has powers to make orders to protect a particular named individual child from such men, but the Riaz order was drafted broadly to protect all children. Hayden J feels that this went too far.

 

 

  1. It is easy to see why the Local Authority has brought this application. Indeed, given the emphasis in Dr. Parsons’ report on the risk to adolescent females the Local Authority may very well have faced criticism for failing to act, given the apparent jurisdictional basis on which to do so highlighted in the Birmingham case. If I may say so Mr Lefteri has advised the Authority entirely properly and has prosecuted his case succinctly and effectively. In the course of exchanges however, he could identify no jurisdictional basis for the order he sought other than the Birmingham case.
  2. Mr Lefteri concludes his supplemental submissions thus:

    “It is respectfully submitted that the use of injunctive orders pursuant to the inherent jurisdiction should be perceived as a deterrent to dissuade abusive and exploitative practices of the perpetrators of sexual abuse, not to dissuade Local Authorities from adopting the “bold and innovative” approach of Birmingham City Council for the protection of children.

    The Local Authority does not suggest that the use of injunctive orders should be used as a substitute for the Police actively pursuing Sexual Risk Orders. Indeed, multi-agency cooperation and sharing of information should be strongly encouraged by this Court, irrespective of the outcome. It is respectfully suggested that as a matter of good practice, Courts in care proceedings (or indeed any other family proceedings) where findings of sexual abuse or harm are made, should immediately direct the disclosure of the Court’s judgment to the relevant Police department.

    The purpose of keeping the remedy open to the High Court is to provide potential relief to Local Authorities under the inherent jurisdiction in the future, to account for transitional protective arrangements or where Sexual Risk Orders are inappropriate, delayed or unavailable. The Court will undoubtedly consider each case on its facts and circumstances and consider the implications of such an order on the Convention Rights of each individual against whom such remedy is sought.”

  3. These are important issues and I reserved judgment to reflect on the arguments. The concept of the ‘inherent jurisdiction’ is by it’s nature illusive to definition. Certainly it is ‘amorphous’ (see paragraph 14 above) and, to the extent that the High Court has repeatedly been able to utilise it to make provision for children and vulnerable adults not otherwise protected by statute, can, I suppose be described as ‘pervasive’. But it is not ‘ubiquitous’ in the sense that it’s reach is all- pervasive or unlimited. Precisely because it’s powers are not based either in statute or in the common law it requires to be used sparingly and in a way that is faithful to its evolution. It is for this reason that any application by a Local Authority to invoke the inherent jurisdiction may not be made as of right but must surmount the hurdle of an application for leave pursuant to s100 (4) and meet the criteria there.
  4. The point is illuminated by considering the fetters that exist on the scope of the inherent jurisdiction in those cases where the needs of an individual child are in issue. In Holmes-Moorhouse v Richmond Upon Thames London Borough Council [2009] UKHL 7 the House of Lords emphasised that a child who is a Ward of Court cannot be regarded as having special privileges, nor has the High Court any power to obtain access to resources for a Ward which would not be available otherwise. The same principle is reflected in the situation of the incapacitous adult see: Aintree University Hospitals Foundation Trust v James and Others [2013] UKSC 67.
  5. Not only is the scope of the inherent jurisdiction restricted but the interface between the Family Court or the Court of Protection and Public Authorities is subtle. Thus the High Court may try to persuade a Public Authority to act in a way which the court considers to be in the best interest of the child but it must not allow itself to be utilised to exert pressure on a public authority see: R v Secretary of State for Home Department ex p T [1995] 1 FLR 293.
  6. The development of Judicial Review, as illustrated by ex parte T (supra), has also served to curtail the exercise of the powers of the inherent jurisdiction. No power be it statutory, common law or under the prerogative is, in principle, unreviewable. The High Court’s inherent powers are limited both by the constitutional role of the court and by its institutional capacity. The principle of separation of powers confers the remit of economic and social policy on the legislature and on the executive, not on the Judiciary. It follows that the inherent jurisdiction cannot be regarded as a lawless void permitting judges to do whatever we consider to be right for children or the vulnerable, be that in a particular case or more generally (as contended for here) towards unspecified categories of children or vulnerable adults.
  7. Whilst sympathetic to the objectives of this Local Authority and indeed to those of Keehan J in the Birmingham case, I think Ms. Johnson is correct when she says that to extend the scope of the inherent jurisdiction to children who are neither known nor subject to any proceedings, is to go beyond the parameters of it’s reach. However well intentioned the ambition to prevent child sexual exploitation generally, this is ultimately to make a utilitarian calculation of social policy. The framework within which such children should be safeguarded and protected is for Parliament to create and for the Courts to enforce.
  8. Certainly, a survey of the case law reveals that however creatively the jurisdiction may have been implemented it has always been deployed to protect or promote the best interests of an identified child or vulnerable adult. The most recent consideration of the jurisdiction was by Sir James Munby, the President of the Family Division, in Re M (children) [2015] EWHC 1433 (Fam). In considering whether to grant leave pursuant to s100 (4) the President addressed the application in this way:

    “27. The local authority has turned to the court inviting its assistance and proposing recourse to the inherent jurisdiction, to wardship. That requires consideration of section 100 of the Children Act 1989. There was, in my judgment, reasonable cause to believe that, if the court’s inherent jurisdiction was not exercised, the children were likely to suffer significant harm, as that expression is defined in section 31 of the 1989 Act: see section 100(4)(b) of the Act. I had no doubt that this is a case in which I should give the local authority leave in accordance with section 100(3) of the Act. I was satisfied that each of the conditions in section 100(4) is met. Quite plainly I should exercise my powers under the inherent jurisdiction. The questions was, can I and if so how?”

  9. Answering the question posed in that final sentence, the President sets out his reasoning thus:

    “29. The Crown – I put the matter generally and without descending into detail or identifying any qualifications to what I am about to say – has a protective responsibility for its subjects wherever they may be, whether in this country or abroad. The correlative of this, as both Casement and Joyce ultimately discovered to their cost, is the subject’s duty of allegiance to the Crown wherever he may be, whether in this country or abroad: see The King v Casement [1917] 1 KB 98 and Joyce v Director of Public Prosecutions [1946] AC 347. As Darling J said in Casement (page 137), “the subjects of the King owe him allegiance, and the allegiance follows the person of the subject. He is the King’s liege wherever he may be”.”

    “30. Now the significance of this in the present case – I say nothing whatever of its significance (if any) in relation to the children’s parents – is that the Crown’s protective duty, as parens patriae, in relation to children extends, in the case of a child who is a British subject, to protect the child wherever he may be, whether in this country or abroad.”

  10. The emphasis in bold above is my own. What is plain is that the President is contemplating the inherent jurisdiction in the context of an individual child, casting his language in the terms of the Practice Direction 12 D (see para 17 above).
  11. In Al Habtoor v Fotheringham [2001] EWCA Civ 186, [2001] 1 FLR 951, Thorpe LJ made the following observations in relation to the scope of the inherent jurisdiction:

    “42. The first is that in my opinion the courts of this jurisdiction should be extremely circumspect in assuming any jurisdiction in relation to children physically present in some other jurisdiction founded only on the basis of nationality. Parens patriae jurisdiction has a fine resounding history. However its practical significance has been much diminished domestically since the codification of much child law within the Children Act 1989. In order to achieve essential collaboration internationally it has been necessary to relax reliance upon concepts understood only in common law circles. Thus our historic emphasis on the somewhat artificial concept of domicile has had to cede to an acknowledgement that the simpler fact based concept of habitual residence must be the currency of international exchange. The parens patriae concept must seem even more esoteric to other jurisdictions than the concept of domicile. If we are to look for reciprocal understanding and co-operation, so vital with the steady increase in mobility and mixed marriage together with an equal decrease in the significance of international frontiers, we must refrain from exorbitant jurisdictional claims founded on nationality. To make a declaration of unlawful detention in relation to a child of dual nationality cared for by a biological parent in a jurisdiction whose courts have sanctioned the arrangement by order is only to invite incomprehension, and perhaps even stronger reactions, in that other jurisdiction.”

  12. Later, Thorpe LJ reviewed the existing case law and observed:

    “I accept Mr Everall’s submission that the decision nearest in point is the judgment of Ward J in F v S (Wardship: Jurisdiction) [1991] 2 FLR 349. In that case Ward J held that where the court in wardship did not have jurisdiction under the Family Law Act 1986 to make an order in relation to a child’s care and control it should not assume inherent jurisdiction to make an order for the recovery of the child. In his judgement he categorised such an order as ‘a devious entry to the court by the back door where parliament has so firmly shut the front door’. Although his judgment was subsequently reversed on the facts, his conclusions on jurisdiction were not criticised. In my opinion by analogy there is equally no jurisdiction to make a declaration of wrongful detention in similar circumstances.”

 

 

He refutes any notion of sharp practice by Keehan J

 

I would wish to make it abundantly clear that I do not consider Mr. Lefteri’s application here to be ‘a devious entry to the court by the back door where parliament has so firmly shut the front door’. I most certainly do not suggest that of Keehan J either. I am, as I have been at pains to stress, entirely sympathetic to their respective objectives but as Thorpe LJ emphasises this is a jurisdiction that should be used with ‘extreme circumspection’ respectful of the role of Parliament.

 

 

But decides that use of the inherent jurisdiction to protect all children or a raft of children rather than individual named ones has finally found a limit to the inherent jurisdictions theoretically limitless powers

 

Cumulatively therefore, reviewing the relevant law, statute and practice directions, I have come to the clear conclusion, for the reasons I have set out above, that the injunctive relief sought on behalf the London Borough of Redbridge is outwith the scope of this Court’s powers. I recognise that in this and on this point only I disagree with the approach taken by Keehan J in the Birmingham case.

 

 

Hayden J also points out that at the time Riaz was decided, the Sexual Risk Orders hadn’t come into force  (they’d been in the statutory powers for nearly a year but hadn’t been implemented, and they now have). So from this point on, you can use the inherent jurisdiction to protect AN individual child from risky persons, but if you want to stop those risky persons being around children, you’ll need to use the criminal jurisdiction (which is going to be the police making these applications  – underlinign as ever, mine)

 

  1. Serendipitously, at least for the purposes of my analysis, Parliament has now amended parts 2 and 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Anti-social Crime and Policing Act 2014. Section 122 A provides for the making of ‘Sexual Risk Orders’ (SRO) and outlines the Grounds on which they may be obtained and their effect:

    Sexual risk orders (England and Wales)

    122A Sexual risk orders: applications, grounds and effect

    (1) A chief officer of police or the Director General of the National Crime Agency (“the Director General”) may by complaint to a magistrates’ court apply for an order under this section (a “sexual risk order”) in respect of a person (“the defendant”) if it appears to the chief officer or the Director General that the following condition is met.

    (2) The condition is that the defendant has, whether before or after the commencement of this Part, done an act of a sexual nature as a result of which there is reasonable cause to believe that it is necessary for a sexual risk order to be made.

    (3) A chief officer of police may make an application under subsection (1) only in respect of a person—

    (a) who resides in the chief officer’s police area, or

    (b) who the chief officer believes is in that area or is intending to come to it.

    (4) An application under subsection (1) may be made to any magistrates’ court acting for a local justice area that includes—

    (a) any part of a relevant police area, or

    (b) any place where it is alleged that the person acted in a way mentioned in subsection (2).

    (5) The Director General must as soon as practicable notify the chief officer of police for a relevant police area of any application that the Director has made under subsection (1).

    (6) On an application under subsection (1), the court may make a sexual risk order if it is satisfied that the defendant has, whether before or after the commencement of this Part, done an act of a sexual nature as a result of which it is necessary to make such an order for the purpose of—

    (a) protecting the public or any particular members of the public from harm from the defendant, or

    (b) protecting children or vulnerable adults generally, or any particular children or vulnerable adults, from harm from the defendant outside the United Kingdom.

    (7) Such an order—

    (a) prohibits the defendant from doing anything described in the order;

    (b) has effect for a fixed period (not less than 2 years) specified in the order or until further order.

    (8) A sexual risk order may specify different periods for different prohibitions.

    (9)The only prohibitions that may be imposed are those necessary for the purpose of—

    (a)protecting the public or any particular members of the public from harm from the defendant, or

    (b)protecting children or vulnerable adults generally, or any particular children or vulnerable adults, from harm from the defendant outside the United Kingdom.

    (10)Where a court makes a sexual risk order in relation to a person who is already subject to such an order (whether made by that court or another), the earlier order ceases to have effect.

  2. When Keehan J heard the arguments in the Birmingham case these provisions had not come into force and accordingly, the protection that they offer was, at that stage, not available. I have been told by Mr Lefteri that an application has been made to a Magistrate’s Court in respect of SNA it is believed that the conditions for the making of such an order are met. That will ultimately be a matter for the Magistrates Court. It would seem therefore, that the protection contemplated in this application may, in due course, be available. Recognising this from the outset Mr Lefteri sought orders in this Court in an attempt to ‘hold the ring’ until orders have been made in the criminal courts.
  3. There are sound reasons why the criminal courts are the correct venue to consider the making of these orders. Firstly, and most obviously, Parliament, after proper scrutiny, has carefully defined the scope and ambit of the provisions. Secondly, notwithstanding the considerable advancements made in achieving much greater levels of transparency in the Family Court, a judge sitting in this jurisdiction will invariably have to protect the identity of the child and in order to do so, preserve, by a side wind, the anonymity of a perpetrator. I do not believe any right minded person having read my short review of the facts of this case (above) would consider it appropriate to expose this young girl to the inevitable harm of publicity. The Press, in my experience, have been assiduous in their respect of this principle.
  4. In the Criminal Courts however, the focus is different. There is now, rightly, much greater emphasis on the ‘victim’ but that is wholly different to the range of the enquiry necessary in the Family Courts. In the Criminal Court, where the liberty of the individual is in issue, the public interest in the administration of the criminal justice system must always weigh heavily. The Criminal Courts are now, frequently, able to conduct trials entirely in the public domain whilst at the same time protecting the identity of the Complainant and, where necessary, his or her relationship to the Defendant. Certainly, where the Complainant is a minor, society recognises the necessity of this measure. The family justice system is unlikely to replicate this. Thirdly, the responsibility for the policing of such orders rest with the police who are far better equipped than social services to monitor compliance

 

 

 

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FLBA-gasted *

Posted on July 21, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

 

I think many of you may have heard that the FLBA (Family Law Bar Association) have written to the Government requesting that there be a review of advocacy within family law, and making it fairly obvious that their steer is that solicitors should be discouraged from doing it and that only the Bar is really competent to do it.

If you haven’t seen it, I’ll link to it here  (you need PDF skillz to read it, sorry if that shuts you out)  http://flba.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/16july15lettertosvmp.pdf

 

There’s much of it that is very sensible – absolutely the stakes are high in public law cases and it is vital that those who are being represented are receiving that representation from people who are both confident and capable. If people, particularly parents, are not being well represented and points that ought to be taken are not being pursued, then that’s something that needs to be stopped.

 

And the points that are made that a financial element has pushed solicitors who would rather not be doing advocacy into having to do it to keep their firms afloat, are I think well made. It must be wrong that a lawyer is tackling work which they feel is beyond them because the only viable business model at present is one where a family lawyer does lots and lots of their own advocacy. You have to have a system in place where a solicitor who feels that the case requires a degree of experience and advocacy that is more than they possess is able to instruct counsel without feeling that the case has become as a result unprofitable.

 

However, I can also see that some of the underlying tone of the document creeps into what I trust is an unintentional assumption that the Bar is never guilty of the poor advocacy described here whereas it must be ‘par for the course’ for Solicitors;  the elements of “two legs bad, four legs good” are not attractive. I’m not sure that divide and rule is the best strategy in these difficult times for both branches of the profession.

 

*If the FLBA do want to do use as their telephone hold music, a reworking of Shabba Ranks finest hour so that it goes “Mister Loverman, FLBA” they are welcome to implement that idea…

 

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Genuinely shocking

Posted on July 20, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

 

The Court of Appeal in Re A-S (children) 2015 had to deal with an appeal, the facts of which were genuinely shocking to me. And that is as a lawyer who has been dealing with Children Act 1989 cases for over twenty years now.

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2015/748.html

 

Within care proceedings, a range of findings were made against the mother, the most serious of which was that she had deliberately drowned her baby (who survived and is fine now). The mother’s case, including her case on appeal, was that she had been negligent in leaving her child unattended in the bath, where he became submerged, but that it was an accident.

 

You may be thinking that it must be very difficult to establish to the requisite standard of proof whether the incident of drowning was deliberate or accidental. The shocking thing about this case is not merely the incident itself, but that the whole thing was recorded by way of a 999 call.

 

The call lasted for around 15 minutes.  The mother telephoned 999 to say that there had been an accident, that her baby had been left unattended in a bath and had slipped under the water.  However, that 999 call is recorded, and the medical experts (and indeed the Judges) who listened to it had three major concerns :-

 

1. That up until around the nine minute mark, the baby can be heard making normal baby noises that would not be consistent with a child who had nearly drowned.

2. That at around the nine minute mark, the mother stops speaking although the paramedics can be heard trying to talk to her and engage with her. And the sound of running water is heard.

3. That after that period, a scream is heard from the mother, and thereafter, the noises made by the baby are consistent with a child having been immersed under water –  the baby is heard again grunting and coughing then in further respiratory distress and suddenly stops breathing at 10 minutes 48 seconds  – and he was in this position until the paramedic arrived and resuscitated him at around the 15 minute mark.

 

There was also evidence from several medical professionals that it was just not possible that a child would have nearly drowned, showed no ill effects for nine minutes, then stopped breathing and required resuscitation by a paramedic. The sequence of events is just wrong.

“Diana Howlett … is a consultant paediatrician of 20 years. She and two of her colleagues of similar experience, Dr Goldsworthy and Dr Linton, who had been asked to listen to the recording of the call. Her report is at G87. Putting its contents very simply all the three doctors say there is a disparity in their view between the history given by the mother (the child had been found drowned a few minutes prior to the phone call) and the “auditory history” of the child on the call, ie the crying and other sounds L was making in the first 10 minutes of the call and his presentation when medical help arrived at the house. They concluded that they can hear the sound of running water after 10 minutes and the explanation is that it is at this point the child is being drowned. In their written submissions Mr Ekaney QC and Miss Evans ask me to treat this evidence very carefully. The doctor said in cross-examination “we were asked to give an opinion but none of us would consider ourselves experts in this area. It raises more questions really”. I do not intend to put any significant weight on this evidence. They heard what they heard, the baby appeared to be crying while mother was shouting things like “don’t die”, “stand up”, and in particular “wake up, wake up” when from the noise he was making he appeared to be awake. I have to say I heard that too.”

 

  1. I turn to the report of Dr D S James of the Wales Institute of Forensic Medicine at Cardiff University. It was accurately and sufficiently summarised by Judge Marston in his judgment as follows:

    “He says if you ignore the content of the 999 call M’s description of immersion, apparent respiratory arrest, gradual recovery after rescue breaths and presentation to paramedics after 10-15 minutes wet, cold and in respiratory distress but responding well to oxygen with an eventual good recovery is in keeping with the pathology of near drowning. If the child was not in respiratory distress and apparently vocalising normally for an infant of his age ie “well”, the description of a very unwell infant, cold, quiet and collapsed raises the question why there has been a significant and sudden deterioration in his condition. In his report the doctor puts two possibilities, either it is a complication of the immersion or “there has been a further episode of immersion causing L to collapse”. In his conclusions he says the baby would not usually be normal for 10 minutes prior to a sudden deterioration but the consequences of near drowning are complex and variable and there are pathophysiological mechanisms which merit consideration by paediatric clinicians.”

  2. Finally, I go to the report of Dr Stephen Playfor, Consultant Paediatric Intensivist in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Dr Playfor’s report contains a very careful and detailed analysis of what can be heard on the recording of the 999 call. He constructed what he called “a robust timeline of events”. His opinion, on the balance of probability, was that L was drowned during the interval of 49 seconds between 21.43:28 and 21.44:17. (Since the recording started at 21.34:48, this corresponds with the interval between 8 minutes 40 seconds and 9 minutes 29 seconds.) He opined that the likelihood of the respiratory distress which can be heard subsequently on the recording occurring as a physiological response to an episode of drowning before the making of the 999 call is “very small (<5% chance).” He said:

    “A single episode of drowning occurring before the recorded 999 call … is not compatible with the sounds contained within that recording.”

    He added:

    “L can be heard to vocalise and cry normally during the first 8 minutes and 40 seconds of the recorded 999 call without any sign of respiratory distress. During this period I am confident that he was conscious, ‘near normal’ and not in any need of resuscitation.”

 

 

The conclusion that the Judge was inexorably drawn to was that the mother had made a 999 call when there was nothing wrong with the child, but during the course of the call had done deliberately to the child what she was claiming had happened accidentally.

 

About the only argument that mother could deploy is that this seems unbelievably improbable, and so she deployed it.

“I now turn to consider the final part of [the] jigsaw, M’s evidence. She deploys a number of powerful points before she even gets into the witness box. First there is the inherently unlikely nature of the allegation that a mother would drown her own child. Her father, for example, thought such a possibility here as absurd. That does not of course change the standard of proof but it is something I must have strongly in mind when considering the case. Next there is something called the wider canvass. Here I am dealing with the loving, kind mother who it is said was without external stressors and who gave a consistent account throughout.”

 

 

It was, of course, a very significant finding for the Judge to make, particularly in a case where there’s nothing in the background features of the case that would cast any light on why the mother would do something as peculiar and harmful as this.

The judge’s conclusion is in a passage which I must set out in full:

“The medical evidence all points in the same direction. The baby was normal until about 8/9 minutes into the 999 call. There is no reason related to an earlier drowning incident that would cause the post 10 minutes in collapse. The Mother’s evidence of what happened is not substantiated by any external matters eg a pan of burned food or a full baby bath, there is some evidence of what might be brown flecks of faeces in the bath but no other bit of the Mother’s story is supported The Mother’s evidence is shot through with so many lies and so much vagueness that I am forced to conclude she is trying to hide something. The only thing that she can possibly be attempting to hide is that there was no incident of drowning in the bath and that she is responsible for attempting to drown the child after 8 minutes and 40 seconds of the phone call for about 47 seconds. Most likely this was under the tap in the conservatory. I cannot speculate on why she made the call in the first place or why she did what she did. It seems to me that at the point where she seeks reassurance from Mr Mahony that the baby will be alright and he says the child is seriously ill she becomes hysterical because she realises what she has done. It may be that she did not intend to kill the baby. Until the mother tells the truth we are left with speculation.

I find [the] allegation proved on the balance of probabilities.”

The Judge added a clarification about the mother’s motivation for making the 999 call

“With regard to the 999 call I have to conclude that the 999 call was instigated for a reason I can only speculate about, and I do not think it is appropriate for me to speculate. My finding is that at the start of that call the child had not been subject to an incident of drowning. I made that finding specifically on all of the evidence that I heard; the medical evidence; the evidence from all of the parties who gave evidence; and the witnesses that were called. I do not know why the mother was distressed during the first part of the call. She was certainly at the time of the arrival of the paramedic in a calm condition, and became distressed – in fact hysterical according to the paramedic – after she was told, as I pointed out in my judgment, the condition of her baby was very serious. I rely on the totality of the evidence about the 999 call. I gave only marginal weight to the three paediatricians who were not jointly instructed experts and who, one of whom in Mr Kenny’s cross-examination, conceded that they were only again marginally connected with the case. I obviously give a great deal more weight to the jointly instructed experts, and I have listened to the call myself and read the transcript.”

This is one of the sad truths about Court hearings – sometimes even after every scrap of paper is obtained and every witness is scoured in cross-examination, the Court doesn’t get to the Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth.  We will never know what made the mother do what she did here, and speculation was quite rightly put out of the picture by the Judge.

The appeal was on the basis largely that the Judge had gone too far in making a finding that the mother had deliberately injured the baby by drowing it, after making a 999 call.

The problem that mother’s team had to overcome was that the 999 recording was not only compelling evidence for the medical experts, but that it was striking and easy to follow for anyone listening to it, including the Court of Appeal Judges.

  1. This appeal comes before us in forensically unusual circumstances. As I have already remarked, at the heart of the appeal is the question of what it is that can be heard on the recording of the 999 call; crucially, what exactly it is that can be heard of L. Each of us has listened to the recording. I have listened to the recording more than once. We are therefore in almost as good a position as the judge to come to a conclusion.
  2. The experts described what they had heard on the tape during the first nine minutes or so of the recording. It is apparent from his judgment and his subsequent clarification that their descriptions accorded with what Judge Marston heard. It accords with what I heard when I listened to the recording.
  3. Two points emerge:

    i) First, during the first nine minutes or so of the recording one hears what Dr Howlett and her colleagues described in their report as “Normal baby vocalisations”including “polysyllabic babble and normal multi-tonal crying.” Equally important is what one does not hear: coughing, grunting, wheezing or other sounds of respiratory distress.ii) Secondly, the layman’s impression is confirmed by expert opinion: what can be heard is not compatible – the words used both by Dr Howlett and her colleagues and by Dr Playfor – with a previous drowning.

    Put very simply, a baby who presented as L did to Mr Mahoney when he arrived, would not have been vocalising, indeed would not have been capable of vocalising, as L was during the first nine minutes or so of the recording, if he had drowned before the 999 call was made.

  4. It was this which drove Judge Marston to his conclusion as to the timing of L’s drowning. That was plainly a conclusion properly open to him. Indeed, I would without hesitation have reached the same conclusion. L was not drowned before the 999 was made; he was drowned some nine minutes or so after the recording began.
  5. That being so, the only remaining question is whether this drowning was itself accidental or, as the judge found, deliberate. Judge Marston inferred that it was deliberate. In my judgment hewas entitled to come to that conclusion. Mr Ekaney submits that the judge was here in the realm of mere speculation. I do not, with respect, agree. Two factors point compellingly in this direction. First, it follows from the ascertainment of the true timing of the drowning, that the mother’s 999 call was false. L had not at that time “fallen in the water”. There had been no negligence on the mother’s part. What an astonishing coincidence that, some ten minutes later, L should actually have suffered an accidental drowning, that precisely what the mother had fabricated should so soon become reality. Secondly, if this drowning was in truth accidental, then why on earth did the mother not say so? Why should she persist in her lies? It would of course expose her to the charge that she had made a false 999 call, and wasted the time of the emergency services, but surely better that than being found to havedeliberately drowned her own baby.
  6. Where Judge Marston did, correctly, say that he would be entering into the realm of speculation was in relation to two matters: first, the mother’s reasons for making the false 999 call and then deliberately drowning L; and, secondly, as to the mechanism she adopted. The fact that, in relation to these crucial matters, he could only speculate no doubt gave Judge Marston pause for thought, just as they have me.
  7. Given his, and my, inability to provide anything except the most speculative answers, could he be confident, can I be confident, in relation to the timing of the drowning? That, at the end of the day, as it seems to me, is what this appeal really comes down to.

 

The appeal was dismissed, but the Court of Appeal went further than saying that His Honour Judge Marston was not shown to be wrong.

 

  1. So far as concerns Judge Marston, I have no doubt that the appeal must be dismissed, essentially for the reasons so succinctly articulated by McFarlane LJ. Despite all Mr Ekaney’s very considerable and very skilful endeavours, Judge Marston’s ultimate conclusion is, in my judgment, unassailable. In the light of all the evidence, and in particular in the light of what he heard when listening to the recording, he was entitled to conclude as he did and for the reasons he gave.
  2. That suffices to dispose of the appeal, but in these very unusual circumstances I can, and should, go further. As I have said, having listened to the recording, I am convinced that the judge was right. What I was listening to during the first nine minutes or so was a baby who had not then been drowned. From this it follows inexorably, given all the other evidence, that the mother’s 999 call was false and that the drowning which took place at some point thereafter but before Mr Mahoney arrived was indeed deliberate. I have anxiously asked myself whether I can truly be that confident, given that I am left speculating, as was Judge Marston, on important matters to which such a finding necessarily invites attention. I can only say that, despite my inability to provide more than speculative answers to those questions, I am convinced by what I heard. The recording is, to anyone who has heard it, extraordinarily compelling. It drives one inexorably to the conclusion at which Judge Marston arrived.

 

This must have been a very terrible case to deal with. I’m sure that in order to deal with it properly, those involved had to listen to that harrowing tape many many times. Having had to listen to that sort of tape myself , I know that it stays with you very vividly for many years, and never completely leaves you.

 

Cases like this are of course, very very rare.  When children are injured, it is more usually a momentary lapse, a loss of self-control or careless handling without thought to the strength that an adult can bring to bear.  Sometimes, as in this case   Cumbria CC v Q 2015http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2015/59.html , something that looks like horrific abuse can actually have an innocent explanation.  That case took 18 medical witnesses to arrive at the juidicial finding that the baby had rickets and thus had a propensity to fracture more easily than an average child.  Up until that point, there had been features  that would have led anyone to be deeply suspicious (both parents had convictions for violent offences, the parents had given inconsistent evidence and lied about things, the injuries were multiple, serious and ‘classic’ nai type injuries)

 

It really is very rare, that as here, something happens that leads a parent to deliberately set out to harm their child.

 

From what is reported here, there was nothing that could have led anyone to predict that this might happen, and so we are fortunate that mother made the 999 call and that a paramedic arrived. This does not appear to have been something that could have been predicted or prevented before it happened.  If someone had ever alleged that such a risk was likely, or even theoretically possible, before it happened, they would have looked a fool.  Hopefully nothing like this will ever happen again.

 

 

 

 

 

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Very superstitious, writing’s on the wall

Posted on July 20, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

Re R (fact finding) 2015  http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/OJ/2015/B95.html

May I pass my hearty congratulations on to Her Honour Judge Atkinson, who has conducted and reported a case which has allowed me to use a Stevie Wonder reference.   Any Judge who is keen to appear on these pages would have a good chance if they name their case Re A (Sir Duke) 2015….

 

Also, it is a case where the Judge’s summary of the legal principles on a finding of fact hearing is done impeccably and with brevity and verve.  I will be lifting this for months to come, and I commend it to others.    [It borrows heavily from Re BR, which is also a thing of beauty. https://suesspiciousminds.com/2015/05/21/proof-of-facts-high-court-guidance-on-disputed-injuries/   ]

 

Look upon her works, ye mighty and erm, hit Ctrl C then Ctrl V  :-

 

  1. The Law
  2. The local authority brings this case and it is for the local authority to prove the facts. The standard of proof is the balance of probabilities: I have to be satisfied that it is more likely than not that the event occurred. It is as simple as that. Where an allegation is a serious one, there is no requirement that the evidence must be of a special quality. Nor does the seriousness of the consequences of a finding of fact affect the standard to which it must be proved. To quote Jackson J: Re BR (Proof of Facts)[2015] EWFC 41

    ” It is exceptionally unusual for a baby to sustain so many fractures, but this baby did. The inherent improbability of a devoted parent inflicting such widespread, serious injuries is high, but then so is the inherent improbability of this being the first example of an as yet undiscovered medical condition. Clearly, in this and every case, the answer is not to be found in the inherent probabilities but in the evidence, and it is when analysing the evidence that the court takes account of the probabilities.”

  3. Evidence comes in many forms and in my discretion the different forms of evidence will be more or less persuasive. In this case there has been evidence from experts and from lay parties. There is no magic in the evidence of an expert. All witnesses come to the witness box as equals. They may not leave as equals but that is a matter for me to assess. The medical evidence is important, and the court must assess it carefully, but it is not the only evidence.
  4. The evidence of the parents is of the utmost importance and the court must form a clear view of their reliability and credibility. Each piece of evidence must be considered in the context of the whole.
  5. Whilst it is not for the parents to provide an explanation as to the possible causes of any injuries, there are situations in which the medical and other evidence points to the fact that the absence of any explanation is of significance. To quote Jackson J again (Re BR supra): “It would of course be wrong to apply a hard and fast rule that the carer of a young child who suffers an injury must invariably be able to explain when and how it happened if they are not to be found responsible for it. This would indeed be to reverse the burden of proof………. Doctors, social workers and courts are in my view fully entitled to take into account the nature of the history given by a carer. The absence of any history of a memorable event where such a history might be expected in the individual case may be very significant. Perpetrators of child abuse often seek to cover up what they have done. The reason why paediatricians may refer to the lack of a history is because individual and collective clinical experience teaches them that it is one of a number of indicators of how the injury may have occurred. Medical and other professionals are entitled to rely upon such knowledge and experience in forming an opinion about the likely response of the individual child to the particular injury, and the court should not deter them from doing so. The weight that is then given to any such opinion is of course a matter for the judge.”
  6. It is common for witnesses in these cases to tell lies in the course of the investigation and the hearing. The court must be careful to bear in mind that a witness may lie for many reasons, such as shame, misplaced loyalty, panic, fear and distress, and the fact that a witness has lied about some matters does not mean that he or she has lied about everything (see R v Lucas [1981] QB 720).
  7. Finally, when seeking to identify the perpetrators of non-accidental injuries the test of whether a particular person is in the pool of possible perpetrators is whether there is a likelihood or a real possibility that he or she was the perpetrator (see North Yorkshire County Council v SA [2003] 2 FLR 849). In order to make a finding that a particular person was the perpetrator of non-accidental injury the court must be satisfied on a balance of probabilities. It is always desirable, where possible, for the perpetrator of non-accidental injury to be identified both in the public interest and in the interest of the child, although where it is impossible for a judge to find on the balance of probabilities, for example that Parent A rather than Parent B caused the injury, then neither can be excluded from the pool and the judge should not strain to do so (see Re D (Children) [2009] 2 FLR 668, Re SB (Children) [2010] 1 FLR 1161).

 

 

 

Seriously, if you set up a competition to set out the legal principles involving physical injuries, I’d be very impressed if anyone could beat this entry.

 

Anyway, on to the superstition bit.

 

Things hadn’t started well for the family when they moved into new accommodation, that had been previously occupied by others.

 

There has been evidence from each of the parents that on the blinds in the bedroom it looked as if the word “hell” or possibly “help” had been written. The mother joked about it being a sign of something bad in the house. The father undoubtedly found it unsettling.

 

[okay, the writing was on the blinds, not on the wall, but the case is about superstition, and writing being on something… I’ve been far more tenuous in the past, and will be in the future]

One of the features in the case was the father’s superstitions and his belief in ‘bad spirits’   (and explicitly whether this was an indicator that of the two parents, he was the one responsible for the injuries to the child)

 

  1. The concerns expressed regarding father’s belief in “bad spirits”
  2. A major part of his evidence was directed towards the issue of his religious beliefs. This part of the evidence has troubled others more than it has me. I note that even the Guardian alerted the parenting assessors to his belief in “evil spirits”. It was put to him from early on in his evidence that he had told the police in his interview that he believed his son to be occupied or possessed by the devil/ an evil spirit. This has caused some to insist that he has a possible mental health issue. There is no other evidential basis for this assertion.
  3. I have found this young man to be completely open and frank about his religious beliefs and from where they emanate. He has been brought up by a mother whose religious beliefs might be considered by some to border on “superstition”. However, when you peel it back and give him the opportunity to explain I have found nothing concerning in his views.
  4. I am quite satisfied that what he was seeking to explain in his police interview and in his evidence before me was a strongly held belief that something other worldly and possibly disruptive, evil if you like, bringing bad luck could be warded off through prayer. There is nothing unusual in such a belief. Many mainstream Christian faiths have their homes blessed by a priest before occupying. Other faiths have prayers written on paper rolled up into a container and nailed above the door to keep their home safe. The crucifix over the entry to the home. The blessing of a baby by a practising catholic before christening lest anything untoward might happen. Crossing your fingers. In my judgment these are all examples of the same thing.
  5. He denies that he has been accurately reported by the SW. I have not heard the evidence of the SW – it has not been necessary but I am prepared to believe that even if it she accurately recorded what she believed he was saying it was misunderstood and I am prepared to believe that because of the reaction I have seen to this subject – the excitement that is has caused – just in this hearing.
  6. In his interview with the police he was questioned for 3 ½ hours without a legal representative. He is led by the officer questioning him on many of these issues such that it is not clear what he might have volunteered. He didn’t have a chance. I am afraid that I consider that he has not been given the chance to explain himself to his partner and her family either. I think it entirely possible that in this case everyone has been looking for an explanation as to how this baby has suffered such significant injuries in the care of a couple about which there have been no contra-indications to date. As a result, those investigating seem to have been prepared to latch onto anything apparently unusual. In my view this issue about extreme religious beliefs is a red herring.

 

The Court did make findings that the injuries were caused by one of the parents, but that there was not sufficient evidence to identify which or exclude either of them.

 

 

To finish off I am going to indulge myself and you, with some of the greatest songs ever   [waves at Camilla Wells from 1 Crown Office Row]:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Has the adoption case law made any difference in your Courts?

Posted on July 17, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

 

 

I don’t pretend that this is scientific – given that it is on a law geek website, it is only going to get voters who actually know about Re B, Re B-S et al, whereas I know from training that I give around the country that substantial volumes of social workers have been told nothing about it.

 

But I thought that a poll might help to identify a broad trend. I have my own answer, but I’m sure that my answer must be coloured by my own local experience.

In voting, please vote for what you are actually seeing in your local Courts – it isn’t meant to be a vote about what you think OUGHT to be happening.  It is open to everyone, not just lawyers and social workers.  (It is probably easier for people who were dealing with these cases both now and before Sept 2013, but I’m not excluding anyone)

If you want to disseminate the poll more widely, to other colleagues, or to local solicitors or social workers or Guardians, that’s fine. The more people who respond, the more useful an indicator it might be.

 

 

[It is my first try at a poll on the blog, so bear with me if there are teething problems]

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IS v Director of Legal Services 2015

Posted on July 16, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

Many other people will be writing about this case, but I’ll just give the bit for the family lawyers and Court of Protection lawyers (since it touches on capacity cases). Really important for the battles that have been fought since LASPO to say that it is being interpreted by the Legal Aid Agency in a way that, as Mostyn J put it

 

“sacrifices individual justice on the altar of public debt”

 

[which is approvingly cited in the case. Hell yeah]

 

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2015/1965.html

 

This is of course, the case about whether the Legal Aid Agency were properly using their discretion on granting public funding for cases where to represent yourself would put you in a position where your human rights would be breached, i.e section 10 LASPO. The LAA lost. They intend to appeal.

 

The really important bit for family law cases is paragraph 40

 

 

It is difficult to imagine a family case, particularly when there are contested issues about children, in which there would not be an interference with the Article 8 rights of either parent or the children themselves. Thus unless the party seeking legal aid could albeit unrepresented present his or her case effectively and without obvious unfairness, a grant of legal aid would be required. That does not mean that every case will require it: some may be sufficiently simple for the unrepresented party to deal with. Obviously if there is a lack of capacity even such cases may require legal aid. That issue I will have to consider in further detail later. But I am bound to say that I believe that only in rare cases, subject to means and merits if properly applied, should legal aid be denied in such cases. As it is now applied, the scheme is clearly wholly deficient in that it does not enable the family courts to be satisfied that they can do justice and give a fair hearing to an unrepresented party. While the problem may perhaps be less acute in other civil cases, I have no doubt that the difficulties I have referred to in family cases apply.

 

You can’t really have a much clearer message than that to say that the low rate of s10 LASPO public funding applications being granted, and the tests and guidance being applied by the LAA are wrong. Scandalously wrong.

 

Paragraph 80 also good  – that the process of making an application is made unnecessarily difficult, and this, combined with the poor success rate has had the obvious effect of discouraging such applications from being made.

 

The main problem lies in the forms which are prescribed. They are far too complicated and are not at all helpful to lay persons. Providers have difficulties with them and the small level of grant has unquestionably, on the evidence which has not shown to be erroneous, led to the unwillingness of providers to take on clients who need to apply for ECF. The scheme is not properly providing the safety net which s.10 is supposed to provide. It is to be noted that it was anticipated that some 5,000 to 7,000 applications would be made in a year. The actual rate was a fraction of that. The defendants say that the figures they relied on were only estimates for planning purposes. In a letter of 20 August 2013 the MoJ stated that the figures were based on the number of grants estimated in the LASPO consultation exercise, namely 3,700. It is significant that the scheme has not produced anything like that number of grants, let alone applications. Furthermore, as the OS has indicated and a number of applications dealt with in the statements confirm, the hurdle erected for those who lack capacity is far too high. Those who are unable to pay for legal assistance are suffering in a way that Parliament cannot have intended.

 

 

And final flurry of killer blows

  1. As will become apparent, I think that there must be changes to the scheme. The ECF application forms are far too complex for applicants in person. Separate forms should be provided. Indeed, overall the test set out in R(G) can be set out in the form and applicants or providers can then be required to give full details of the need for legal assistance by producing all existing material relevant to the application. As I indicated, what is put on the website can surely be put on a form. Consideration must be given to provision of Legal Help to enable providers to do work to see whether a client has a case which should be granted legal assistance because it qualifies within s.10 of the Act. No doubt the LAA will be entitled to decide whether any such application is reasonable since a provider must satisfy himself that there is a possible need for legal assistance on the basis of preliminary information given by the client and any relevant documents provided. Legal Help does not require a prospect of success test.
  2. The rigidity of the merits test and the manner in which it is applied are in my judgment wholly unsatisfactory. They are not reasonable.
  3. As will be clear, I am satisfied that the scheme as operated is not providing the safety net promised by Ministers and is not in accordance with s.10 in that it does not ensure that applicants’ human rights are not breached or are not likely to be breached. There is a further defect in the failure to have any right of appeal to a judicial body where an individual who lacks capacity will otherwise be unable to access a court or tribunal.

 

 

I don’t know about you, but I find  something shameful about a Ministry of Justice being condemned by a Court for their part in devising a scheme that deprived individuals of justice in order to assauge public debt. And similarly something shameful that a body whose job it is to ensure that people have access to legal representation and advice going out of their way to prevent them getting it.

But then, these are bodies who in their response to the criticisms laid against them by the Justice Select Committee of Parliament with comments like  “The Court did not rule that our policy was wholly unlawful” as though that was something that a Ministry of Justice should actually boast about.

 

Which reminds me rather of Steve Coogan’s pool attendant from the Day Today

 

 

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Irn Brouhaha

Posted on July 16, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

 

I apologise to any readers north of the border for that dreadful gag.

 

Re M 2015 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2015/2082.html

 

The quick summary on this was “mother applies to discharge care order and in the alternative for more contact” so I wasn’t expecting much out of the case when I opened it up. But then I saw four Silks in the case and I thought “oh hello”

 

In very brief summary, His Honour Judge Dowse made findings that a father (F1) had sexually abused a child. The mother’s resistance to accepting those findings and her continuance of a relationship with father led to a series of care proceedings, ending up with seven children being permanently placed away from the mother.  The oldest C1 is subject to a Freeing Order but has not been adopted, the next oldest C2 is placed with an aunt, C3-C7 have all been adopted.

 

And then there is child C8, who is presently living with mother and her new husband (F2) in Scotland, under no orders.

This is the Irn-Brouhaha  –  the Scottish equivalent of care proceedings was brought in Scotland in relation to child C8 and the Court there concluded that there had not been any sexual abuse, and thus no failure to protect.

That was all well and good for the mother and C8, but raised obvious questions of what should happen with child C1 and C2.  If a Court rules that there was no abuse and there is no risk, should they come home?

 

As you may know, I am no admirer of the 350 page limitation, so I had to smile at this particular line from Hayden J

So scrupulously have the documents been pared down for the application before me, in compliance with the President’s Guidance, that it is not possible to track the evolution of these proceedings clearly from the papers filed.

 

 

The big argument for the case was therefore – what legal status does the Scottish judgment on C8 and the sexual abuse allegations have on the English Courts dealing with C1 and C2?

 

  1. In the course of the proceedings in Scotland the Court was persuaded to re-open the findings of HHJ Dowse. At the conclusion of the Scottish hearing, before Sheriff O’Carroll, the court reached a very different conclusion. In his judgment of the 30th October 2013 the Sheriff found that he was unable, on the evidence before him, to find that the Reporter (whose status is similar to that of the Local Authority in England) had discharged the burden of proving, to the civil standard, that M and F1 had been involved in the sexual abuse of any of their children. The allegations, on this aspect of the case, had been placed before the Scottish Court in this way:

    “2. On various occasions between 22 February 1998 and 1 October 2005, at various addresses in the north of England, exact addresses meantime unknown, M and F1 caused C1, C3 and C4 (who were all under the age of thirteen at the relevant times) to participate in sexual activity and caused them to touch, with their hands or their mouths, the genitals, anus and breasts of M and the penis of F1.

    3. Statement of fact 2 demonstrates that M committed an act of lewd and libidinous practices and behaviour. This an offence specified in Schedule 1 to the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.”

  2. In respect of these allegations the Sheriff stated in his judgment:

    “320. […] However, I am unable on the evidence before me to find that the reporter has discharged the burden of proving to the civil standard that statement of fact 2 is proved. It follows that SoF 3 is not proved.”

    By contrast Judge Dowse found:

    “Both parents were involved in explicit and inappropriate sexual behaviour with C1, C4 and C3 and neither protected the children from the other.”

     

 

It is always curious to see how wording differs in other countries – the ‘lewd and libidinous’ adds something here, I think.

 

Non lawyers may not be aware that Scotland has an entirely separate legal system to England and Wales – the statutes are different, the process is different and they have their own case law. The only time that the cases cross over is when the Supreme Court has to decide a case, when the Supreme Court (which is full of English Judges) has to apply Scottish law to the case and reach a decision.  This means establishing whether the Scottish judgment has any legal weight is not a simple task.

 

 

25. Mr Tyler and Mr Booth have drawn my attention to: Stare Decisis and Scottish Judicial Decisions, J.K. Bentil, [1972] Modern Law Review 537. They adopt the analysis of the legal status of Scottish judgments on the law in England and Wales set out in that paper:

    1. “Apart from the fact that some Scottish judicial decisions which go on appeal to the House of Lords may create binding precedents for the English Courts, the effect on English courts of certain Scottish judicial decisions in their own right appears to have received little or no attention this side of the border. Theory has it that generally Scottish judicial decisions are not binding on the English courts but have persuasive effect only. But in actual practice, the weight of authority on this side of the border tends to suggest that certain Scottish judicial decisions, notably those concerned with the interpretation of statutes of common application on both sides of the border, are indeed binding on English courts.”

The ultimate conclusion reached is as set out in paragraph 20 of their Skeleton Argument:

“Although we cannot assert the Sheriff’s judgment to have a formal (in the sense of automatically enforceable) status, it is clear that it has some status, or perhaps better worded, a ‘real significance’.”      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always dread to type the words Brussels II  in a blog post, but I have to.  (It always makes me think of Stephen Hawking’s publisher telling him that every equation in “A Brief History of Time” would cut sales in half. He only actually used one, in the final version)

Very briefly, if the Scottish judgment here had been in Lithuania, or France, or Portugal, the English Court would have to take it into account, and of course, mother could argue that under article 15 the case ought to be dealt with entirely by Scotland.  but Brussels II specifically does not apply to cases between England and Scotland.

In Re PC, YC & KM (Brussels II R: Jurisdiction Within the United Kingdom) [2014] 1 FLR 605 Baker J observed at para 16:

“It is widely recognised that the provisions governing conflicts of jurisdiction in children’s cases within the UK are, in the words of Thorpe LJ in Re W-B, supra, at paragraph 29, “difficult and complicated.” He was referring in particular to the provisions of the Family Law Act 1986, but as Miss Green has demonstrated, there is similar difficulty and uncertainty as to the applicability of BIIR to the allocation of jurisdiction within the UK.”

Nonetheless he went on to conclude at para 18:

“Given the clear view expressed emphatically by the Court of Appeal very recently in Re W-B, I reject Miss Green’s submissions and adopt the orthodox view that BIIR does not apply to jurisdictional disputes or issues arising between the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. Article 15 could not, therefore, be used to transfer these proceedings from England to Scotland.”

 

So the nutshell answer, after four QCs have sweated over it and a High Court Judge have looked at it is, “the Court don’t HAVE to consider it, but probably best not to just ignore it”

We then get into the law on re-opening cases.

Hayden J sets out all of that law very beautifully, but I think that I will cut to the chase, which is Lady Hale’s line In re B (Children: Care Proceedings: Standard of Proof) (CAFCASS intervening) [2008] UKHL 35, [2009] 1 AC 11.”  about situations in which a party wants to challenge findings that had been made by an earlier Court.

“In such an event, it seems to me, the court may wish to be made aware, not only of the findings themselves, but also of the evidence upon which they were based. It is then for the court to decide whether or not to allow any issue of fact to be tried afresh.”

But also

    1. “(a) that there is a public interest in an end to litigation – the resources of the courts and everyone involved in these proceedings are already severely stretched and should not be employed in deciding the same matter twice unless there is good reason to do so; [1997] 1 FLR Hale J Re B (CA Proceedings) (Issue Estoppel) (FD) 295”
    1. (b) that any delay in determining the outcome of the case is likely to be prejudicial to the welfare of the individual child; but
    1. (c) that the welfare of any child is unlikely to be served by relying upon determinations of fact which turn out to have been erroneous; and
    1. (d) the court’s discretion, like the rules of issue estoppel, as pointed out by Lord Upjohn in Carl Zeiss Stiftung v Rayner & Keeler Ltd (No 2) [1967] 1 AC 853, 947, ‘must be applied so as to work justice and not injustice’.
  1. In a further passage that I find has particular resonance to the issues in this case Hale J observes:

    “(3) Above all, the court is bound to want to consider whether there is any reason to think that a rehearing of the issue will result in any different finding from that in the earlier trial. By this I mean something more than the mere fact that different judges might on occasions reach different conclusions upon the same evidence. No doubt we would all be reluctant to allow a matter to be relitigated on that basis alone.”

     

It is ultimately a matter of Court discretion to decide whether to re-open previous findings, but a Court is allowed to consider that there’s limited value in re-running the case unless there’s a decent chance of arriving at a different outcome.

Of course here, we have two judgments, in different countries, which reach diametrically opposite conclusions. That led to some of the barristers having to argue that the Scottish judgment was an exemplar model of the way these things should be done and that HH J Dowse’s judgment was so flawed it ought to have been appealed anyway  (so the Scottish judgment is so superior it establishes a reason for re-hearing) and others having to argue that they were merely Judges reaching different conclusions.

I myself rather liked Mr Howe QC’s approach for the Guardian  (but the Judge did not)

  1. Mr Howe QC, on behalf of the children, engages with these factors in a rather different way and comes to the following conclusion:

    “The Guardian has taken into account the impact on C1 of the court concluding that the allegations were not proved but on balance, and for the reasons given, it is submitted that the balance falls in favour of the court permitting some reconsideration of the findings made by HHJ Dowse on 17th October 2007.”

  2. Mr Howe also submits:

    “the weight to be attached to the Scottish judgment does not arise from any assessment of its merit as an expression of the forensic exercise undertaken. The weight of the Scottish judgment is in its effect. Looking at these circumstances from C1’s perspective, it would be incomprehensible to her that the English court did not ‘think again’ and reconsider, not necessarily overturn, but at least take another look at the allegations given what was found in the Scottish court and how the findings there have enabled a relationship between C8 and M and F2 that, on the evidence before this court, appears to be entirely appropriate and beneficial for him.”

  3. Finally, Mr Howe comments:

    “It is submitted that C2 has to be granted the possibility of some relationship with her sibling and mother by the court agreeing to reconsider the previous findings.”

     

I know that not everyone is fluent in Elegant, so to translate  “It is really important for these children to get to the truth, whatever that might be, and whichever of these judgments is right the fact that they directly contradict each other means that at the moment there is doubt, which can only be eradicated by a re-hearing”

[I  agree with Mr Howe QC here. But as I told you, the Judge did not.  And he was not shy about saying so]

  1. It is self-evident that the interests of neither child is served by an erroneous determination of fact. Such a statement is platitudinous out of context. More than that it can be a dangerous, siren call unless it is considered carefully alongside the other features identified by Hale J in Re B. It is important to recognise that the factors she there identifies are inevitably interrelated. Thus: the insidious dangers of delay have to be considered alongside the more obvious damage caused by erroneous findings of fact. These tensions are notoriously difficult to reconcile and are ever present in family law.
  2. As the President identifies in ZZ (supra), the court’s discretion has to be applied so as to work ‘justice and not injustice’ and so the starting point is, again as he identifies, whether there is ‘some real reason to believe that the earlier findings require revisiting’. That seems, to my mind, to resonate closely with the observations of Hale J: ‘whether there is any new evidence or information casting doubt on the original findings’ (Re B supra). With respect to the Guardian, her views as to the value to C2 of ‘having another look’ lose focus on these important principles and fail to give sufficient weight to the real impact on these children of once again re-opening litigation, which itself may fail to resolve the present situation.
  3. Moreover, I am not prepared to draw the inference, suggested by Mr Howe, that because C1 instigated a further interview, following the Scottish Judgment, she therefore should be taken as signaling a willingness to participate in further litigation. She does not know, for example, what the reach of further litigation might be, nor does she yet have the maturity to understand what its impact on her could be. Before concluding that an issue should be reheard there must really be a substantial reason to believe that further litigation will achieve some clarity. In the light of my view of the validity of each of the respective judgments and finding myself un-persuaded that there are any other solid grounds for believing that a rehearing will result in any clarification of the present position , I can see no basis upon which to grant the application for a rehearing of the English proceedings.

 

[There is a lot in the judgment about a factual comparison between the judgments, and the basis on which the Scottish courts reached a different conclusion. I’m afraid that you would need to read that to fully grasp why on the facts the Judge felt that a re-hearing of the allegations was unlikely to reach a different result.  In very brief terms there were two major issues – that the Scottish Courts had relied on an expert doing something like a ‘veracity’ assessment which is out of favour here and the issues that came up in it were things that HH Judge Dowse had taken into account anyway, and that reliance had been placed on the children saying different things in an ABE interview done years later and the Court felt that this was not unexpected.   I wouldn’t say that I end up wholly agreeing with the conclusions, but because the decision here is largely fact-specific, you do need to read those sections to form your own conclusion about whether the Judge here was right. ]

And finally – wider interest

    1. Finally, I very much regret the delay involved in delivering this judgment. The case provides a powerful reminder of the consequences that ensue when the advocates fail to allow sufficient time in their estimates of hearing for a judge to write and deliver a judgment. The provision of one day to write this judgment is, I hope, self evidently inadequate. All counsel must regard it as a professional obligation to factor time for the judge to write and deliver a judgment into their time estimates. This is a professional duty which should be seen as a facet of the requirement to avoid delay in proceedings concerning the welfare of a child. I take the opportunity here to highlight a pervasive problem which requires to be addressed more widely.

 

It must certainly be the case that a judgment which requires a Judge to look at the intersection of Scottish and English law, Brussels II and all the law on issue estoppel was foreseeably going to take more than a day to write.   I wonder how in a more normal case, counsel are to arrive at a time estimate for a Judge to write the judgment, presumably at IRH so that time can be allocated within the Court listing for the final hearing    (Those advocates who feel the case is a slam-dunk are likely to be estimating 2-3 hours, those who are hoping to persuade the Court that the case is finely balanced before tipping in their favour are likely to be estimating 2 days so that the Court can see that this is a really tricky case which will need very long thought)

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Not being allowed to see an expert report

Posted on July 15, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

 

I’ve read this case half-a-dozen times now, and I still don’t entirely get it.

 

NCC v AH and DH 2015

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2014/4845.html

 

Dramatis personae

 

NCC is the Local Authority.   (It isn’t a very cryptic disguise of whom they might be)

AH is a woman, who has some mental health problems and for a time was considered to lack capacity and be a person at risk from :-

 

DH her husband.

 

The application

(a) an application by DH for disclosure to him of any reports and/or letters by Dr. McInerney and the report of Dr. Khouja dated 29th July 2011;

(b) an application by AH for disclosure to her of the said reports and of her Social Services records (it being acknowledged by all parties that she would share them with DH); and

(c) applications by AH and DH for their costs, or a proportion thereof, incurred in both sets of proceedings to be paid by the local authority.

These applications arise from a set of proceedings under the Inherent Jurisdiction and a set of proceedings under the Mental Capacity Act in the Court of Protection.  Both seem to have arisen because AH made allegations about her husband’s behaviour towards her which were believed (but which appear to have been more a result of her mental health problems).   NCC considered that AH was a woman that they owed duties towards, as a result of Re Z (Local Authority: Duty) [2005] 1FLR 740, especially at para.19.

 

In my judgment in a case such as this the local authority incurred the following duties:

i) To investigate the position of a vulnerable adult to consider what was her true position and intention;ii) To consider whether she was legally competent to make and carry out her decision and intention;

iii) To consider whether any other (and if so, what) influence may be operating on her position and intention and to ensure that she has all relevant information and knows all available options;

iv) To consider whether she was legally competent to make and carry out her decision andintention;

v) To consider whether to invoke the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court so that the question of competence could be judicially investigated and determined;

vi) In the event of the adult not being competent, to provide all such assistance as may be reasonably required both to determine and give effect to her best interests;

vii) In the event of the adult being competent to allow her in any lawful way to give effect to her decision although that should not preclude the giving of advice or assistance in accordance with what are perceived to be her best interests;

viii) Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the commission of a criminal offence may be involved, to draw that to the attention of the police;

ix) In very exceptional circumstances, to invoke the jurisdiction of the court under Section 222 of the 1972 Act

 

 

A psychiatric report was directed in those proceedings, from a Dr McInerney. It appears that within the proceedings, the Official Solicitor (on behalf of AH) and Local Authority, took the view that the Court should take the unusual step of not disclosing that report to DH, on the basis that there were things AH had said about his behaviour which might put her at risk if DH were to see it.  [That’s quite unusual, we’ll come back to it later]

The Official Solicitor and LA also told the Court that they did not rely on Dr McInerney’s report and wanted a second opinion, from a Dr Khouja.  DH  of course, had not seen it, so it was rather hard for him to say whether he did seek to rely on it, or whether a second opinion was necessary.  (One can make an informed guess that if it said things that the LA and OS agreed with, they wouldn’t have been asking for a second opinion, so DH would probably have agreed with what was said)

[It is also worth noting that DH had to pay a share of the costs of Dr McInerney’s report, although he never got to see it or know what it said. He didn’t have to pay a share of the costs of Dr Khouja’s report]

Dr Khouja was directed to file two reports, one on capacity (which DH DID get to see) and one”considering the recent Social Services assessment of AH, and he may also include in that supplementary report, any matter or opinion which he would wish to report upon, but he is of the view should be withheld from DH pending judicial determination of any disclosure issues.”  which DH didn’t get to see.

Dr. Khouja concluded that AH did not lack capacity in respect of any of the matters which he had been instructed to assess. This led to Bodey J’s order of 11th November 2011. By consent, NCC were given permission to withdraw both sets of proceedings. The Official Solicitor was discharged as litigation friend to AH although he remained as an interested party for the purposes of the disclosure application.

 

So, the proceedings were withdrawn, because AH had capacity to make her own decisions about whether she wanted to be with DH or not, and it wasn’t the role of the State to intervene on her behalf.

DH, having gone through all of this and having had to pay for all of his own legal costs, was understandably unhappy, and wanted to make a series of complaints about what had happened.  In order to inform his complaints and no doubt to bolster them, he wanted to see both of the expert reports that had been withheld from him. And he was also asking that some of his costs be paid.

 

Law on non-disclosure

 

The law is that generally, a document filed at Court should be seen by all parties, and the burden is on the party seeking non-disclosure to establish why that general rule should not be followed.

The substantive law is set out in the House of Lords case of Re D (Minors) (Adoption Reports: Confidentiality) [1996] AC 593 [1995] 2 FLR 687. The test is:

“(1) It is a fundamental principle of fairness that a party is entitled to the disclosure of all materials which may be taken into account by the court when reaching a decision adverse to that party…

(2) … the court should first consider whether disclosure of the material would involve a real possibility of significant harm to the child.

(3) If it would, the court should next consider whether the overall interests of the child would benefit from non-disclosure, weighing on the one hand the interest of the child in having the material properly tested, and on the other both the magnitude of the risk that harm will occur and the gravity of the harm if it does occur.

(4) If the court is satisfied that the interests of the child point towards non-disclosure, the next and final step is for the court to weigh that consideration, and its strength in the circumstances of the case, against the interest of the parent or other party in having an opportunity to see and respond to the material. In the latter regard the court should take into account the importance of the material to the issues in the case.

(5) Non-disclosure should be the exception not the rule. The court should be rigorous in its examination of the risk and gravity of the feared harm to the child, and should order non-disclosure only when the case for doing so is compelling.”

[Although Re D here deals with a child, the principles are much the same. The argument was that disclosing to DH an expert report in which AH was presumably making allegations to the expert about abuse might put her at risk.  The counter argument to that is that as a consequence of these proceedings, DH might have to live apart from his wife as a result of such allegations but they were being made in a way that concealed from him what they were.  ]

Moylan J’s judgment does not really deal with this, although to be fair, the decision to not disclose the documents at that earlier stage had already been taken and presumably there is a judgment weighing up those factors at that time.  Instead, he looks at the duty of disclosure being that the documents are disclosed in order to allow a person to participate effectively in the hearing  –  in order to have a fair trial.

  1. Turning now to the legal framework, the expert evidence in this case was obtained for the purposes of these proceedings and pursuant to court orders. The court has power to provide to whom such evidence is to be disclosed and to whom it is not to be disclosed, including a party to the proceedings: see, for example, Re B (Disclosure to Other Parties) [2001] 2 FLR 1017.
  2. The experts overriding duty is to the court. Both proceedings in this case were heard in private. The reports are, therefore, confidential to the court, as described by Sir Nicholas Wall, President, in A County Council v. SB, MA & AA [2011] 1FLR 651. At para.34, he said:

    “In my judgment, ‘confidentiality’ in this context means that the information contained in the papers filed with the court for the purposes of the proceedings is confidential to the court. It is for this reason that, with very few exceptions, the court papers cannot be disclosed to people who are not parties to the proceedings without the court’s permission; and publication outside the proceedings of information relating to the proceedings is in most cases a contempt of court unless permission for it has first been given by the court”.

  3. As a result of being confidential to the court, and to the proceedings, a report cannot be used by any party for any collateral purpose or purpose unconnected with the proceedings without permission from the court. There are a significant number of cases which address the factors which the court will take into account when deciding whether to give such permission.
    1. Turning now to disclosure, the general rule is that a party is entitled to the disclosure of all evidence which any party proposes to adduce to the court. As Lord Dyson said in Al Rawi & Ors. v. The Security Service & Ors. (Justice & Ors. Intervening) [2012] 1 AC 531, at para.12:
      1. “Trials are conducted on the basis of the principle of natural justice. There are a number of strands to this. A party has a right to know the case against him and the evidence on which it is based. He is entitled to have the opportunity to respond to any such evidence and to any submissions made by the other side. The other side may not advance contentions or adduce evidence of which he is kept in ignorance”.
    6. It can be seen from this passage that disclosure is made for the purposes of the proceedings and to ensure that any trial is fair.

 

But of course we know that during the proceedings, those documents were kept from DH. There were allegations being made about him that he was kept in the dark about.  When it emerged that AH had capacity, and wanted to remain in a relationship with DH, the proceedings were withdrawn.

Should he now be entitled to see those reports?   (after all, they are about AH, and she has capacity to say whether she wants him to have them – and she does)

  1. Given the determination of the substantive proceedings, I can identify no grounds on which disclosure of the reports should be ordered. They were prepared for the purposes of the proceedings. They were not disclosed to DH and AH pursuant to orders made during the course of those proceedings. There is no freestanding entitlement to disclosure once proceedings have concluded. Disclosure is part of the process by which the court ensures that a fair trial is effected. It is self-evident that, following the determination of proceedings, disclosure of evidence is no longer required for the purposes of the proceedings or in order to effect a fair trial.
  2. It is self-evident in this case that disclosure can no longer be sought for the purposes referred to in DH’s Solicitor’s letter of 18th March 2010, namely to enable the evidence to be tested within the proceedings. Rather, disclosure is sought by DH and AH for collateral purposes, namely to challenge, what they refer to as, the “toxic” comments in the reports. This, they contend, is necessary to enable them to clear their names. They also want to report Dr. McInerney to the GMC, and possibly to take libel proceedings.
  3. None of these appear to me to provide, in the circumstances of this case, any ground for ordering disclosure. I cannot envisage any court giving permission to DH and/or AH to use the reports for the purposes of any such step. Now that the proceedings are at an end, there is no justification in seeking to challenge the contents of reports prepared for, and only for, the proceedings. I can, therefore, see no basis on which DH and/or AH could now successfully seek to challenge the orders made during the course of the proceedings.

 

That seems to me to be a rather curious way of looking at things. It ought not to matter what DH wants to do with the documents, and whether you think he ought not to do it. This was a report about AH, and we now know that she has capacity to decide for herself whether she wants it to remain confidential or whether she wants her husband to see it, and she does.  I can see that the Court approach is to draw a line under the proceedings and for everyone to move on and forget the whole thing, but once AH has capacity, she is no longer a vulnerable person who needs the protection of the Court. The decision not to disclose the reports at the time were taken in the context that it was believed that she lacked capacity and needed that protection.

The next bit is even more suprising.

Finally, given the clear risk of satellite litigation, I propose to order that neither the Official Solicitor nor the solicitors instructed by the Official Solicitor should disclose the non-disclosed documents or the Social Services records, insofar as they have them, to AH. If this were to happen, it would undermine the effect of my judgment and proposed order.

 

Well, it makes sense. The Court order could easily be circumvented by a subject access request under the Data Protection Act 1998, for disclosure of the records that are held about AH and DH.  This is, however, the Court making an order that a Local Authority need not comply with their statutory obligations under primary legislation if a request were made.  Not only that, it is an order about primary legislation where the first port of call in a dispute or challenge is not actually the Court but to the Information Commissioner.  Does the Court even have jurisdiction to do this?

 

[Well, of course the answer to that is going to be that the original application was under the inherent jurisdiction, and we can all chant the answer “the powers are theoretically limitless”]

 

I can’t actually establish under the DPA what section you would use to refuse a section 7 request.  It doesn’t fit any of the non-disclosure provisions in Schedule 7 of the Act.

 

My best argument would be that in making that order, the Court has effectively determined (though without giving a judgment as to why) that this is satisfied

The Data Protection (Subject Access Modification) (Social Work) Order

2000:

this provides that personal data held for the purposes of social work

are exempt from the subject access provisions, where the disclosure to the

data subject would be likely to prejudice the carrying out of social work, by

causing serious harm to the physical or mental health, or condition, of the

data subject, or another person.

 

For law geeks, there’s a really obvious way of getting the reports, but obviously it would be wrong of me to spell it out here.

 

You won’t be surprised, having read the rest of this, that Moylan J didn’t allow the application by DH for costs.

 

  1. Turning next to the issue of costs, I am satisfied on the evidence that AH was given no assurance that her costs prior to the appointment of the Official Solicitor would be paid. I accept the evidence of Ms. Hardman and Mrs. Ord to that effect, which is supported by the records produced from AH’s own solicitors. Additionally, AH herself says that she was not in a fit state at the relevant time and was not taking things in.
  2. Secondly, in respect of proceedings in the Court of Protection, I can identify no justification for departing from the general rule that there should be no order as to costs. There is nothing in NCC’s conduct which would justify my departing from that rule. The proceedings have concluded without any determination. I am satisfied that NCC have acted properly throughout, in accordance with their obligations. There is no point at which they should have decided, as submitted by DH and AH, to discontinue the proceedings earlier than they did, namely following the receipt of Dr. Khouja’s report.
  3. I am also not persuaded that I should make any separate order in respect of Dr. Khouja’s costs. These were part of the costs of the proceedings to which the general rule applies.
  4. Thirdly, in respect of the costs of the proceedings under the inherent jurisdiction, I am also persuaded that NCC acted properly throughout in bringing the proceedings, in that, in so doing, they were acting in accordance with their obligations in respect of vulnerable adults. As the letter from DH’s solicitor dated 18th March 2010 makes clear, it was accepted that AH had said things to social workers which would lead professionals to have concerns. The letter specifically states that:

    “Our client accepts that the premise of the proceedings is that the local authority believes that his wife’s descriptions of how he has treated her may be true”.

    I can identify no point at which NCC should have decided to discontinue those proceedings earlier than when they did.

 

Thus DH had to pay for legal representation, in order for NCC to go to Court and argue that his wife lacked capacity and needed protecting from him, even though it turned out in the end that she didn’t, and had to pay for a share of an expert report (which probably would have helped his case if he’d seen it) which he wasn’t allowed to see and will never see. The whole of this case was based on allegations which he hasn’t seen and none of which were proved.

 

This one is probably far too legally complex for our friend over at the Telegraph, but it certainly is one that might warrant the “Kafka-esque” label that he routinely affixes to cases.

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Martin Narey’s response

Posted on July 14, 2015 by suesspiciousminds

I wrote recently about Mr Narey’s speech to the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. He has put up a response to my response.

In order to stop us getting into an infinite regress of responses to responses, I won’t do a detailed reply.

Here is his response

 

Very very quick points

1. He didn’t have to do a response – I’m a very tiny fish and he swims in a proper pond with proper grown-up fish (and maybe some sharks), so respect to him for taking the time. And he did it with flair and humour, so fair play to him.

2. I think that we probably agree about more than you might think   (Adoption is the right outcome for some children, and if people are interpreting the case law of the last two years to mean that adoption is never right for any child, they’re wrong; and if the Court does make a Placement Order it is a disgrace for children to wait so long for a family and that needs fixing)

3.  I don’t think we’ll agree on what the law of the last two years is actually saying, but that’s okay.  Probably if you put ten lawyers in a room and ask them something you’d get eleven different opinions.

4. I think he accidentally puts a ‘not’ in when he’s quoting me here :- a lawyers’ job is to give advice but take instructions.

5.  I’m of course not privy to the conversations and discussions that have taken place between Mr Narey and the President. Those things are between themselves. I can only go on what the President has said in public, and there are two major sources there – firstly, his press conference where he accepted that there was a tension between the line the judiciary were taking on adoption (emphasising the nothing else will do) and the line that the Government was taking (emphasising that adoption should not be seen as a last resort) leaving Local Authorities caught in the middle and secondly his coda to Re R which can only be read as saying that the judiciary were not endorsing the Myth-Busting document.

 

I would genuinely like his views on the decisions since December 2014 that have moved children from prospective adopters to members of the birth family. Those are unprecedented developments, and I find it hard to think that it is coincidence that we had no such judgments from 1976 to December 2014 and four since then.  I do honestly worry about these decisions. I think that it puts prospective adopters in a scenario that they never ever wanted to be in  – a court battle fighting about where a child should live; it puts the child in a dreadful situation where they have been settled into a new home and then moved, and it puts the family in a position where the child has been placed with adopters and then returns to them and nobody can really predict the longer term impact or what support they need.  I’ve represented prospective adopters in my time, and the idea of Court always terrified them, even when you were able to reassure them that no Judge was ever going to take the child away from them.

 

 

 

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