Latest Cases

Contempt of court – Committal. The local authority had issued a application seeking the committal to prison of the respondent for contempt arising form his alleged breaches of a court order and his verbal assaults on individuals both in, and immediately outside, court. The Family Division found the charges proved and ordered a term of imprisonment, suspended for a period of 15 months. 

Contempt of court – Committal. The applicant had sought committal orders against two CAFCASS officers and the solicitor who had represented his former partner in child arrangements order proceedings. The Family Division refused the applicant permission to proceed with his applications under FPR Pt 37 due to procedural defects. 

Disclosure and inspection of documents – Disclosure against parties to proceedings. The Queen's Bench Division dismissed an application by two Burmese men accused of murdering British citizens in Thailand to view a report compiled by a British police team relating to the Thai investigation. The court held that there was nothing in the data sought that would be of real value to the claimants, and that the objections raised to disclosure had been valid. 

Police – Powers. The Queen's Bench Division answered questions posed by an appeal by way of case stated concerning the arrest of the appellant, where the arresting officer had been mistakenly informed that the highway in question was public. The court held that, among other things, the arresting officer's mistake had not placed her outside of the execution of her duty. 

Mental health – Court of Protection. The applicant, a young man with severe learning disability and autistic spectrum disorder, applied for consideration of the deprivation of his liberty. The Court of Protection held, among other things, that the first respondent local authority's submission that it was not unreasonable to authorise the applicant's deprivation of liberty for ten months on the basis that his relevant person's representative or his family members could apply to discharge it had been the wrong approach. It was for the supervisory body to ascertain the least restrictive alternative, including the question of duration. 

Practice – Striking out. The Wrexham County Court held that the proceedings brought by the claimant were not a nullity in the sense of being incurably bad by reason of the fact that, when they were commenced, the cause of action was vested not in the claimant but in his trustee in bankruptcy. However, the continued conduct of the present proceedings by the claimant would be an abuse of process unless the irregularity in their constitution, namely, that the cause of action was not vested in the person pursuing them, was remedied. 

Family proceedings – Jurisdiction. The Family Division had to determine whether it had jurisdiction to hear proceedings commenced by the local authority in respect of a 15 year old who had been in England for a total of four months, who had been taken into foster care within a month of his arrival, and whose mother wished for him to attend school in Zimbabwe. The court held that, while it could not determine the child's place of habitual residence on the facts, it had jurisdiction to hear the authority's application founded on the child's presence in England. 

Family proceedings – Orders in family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the appellant father's appeal against the dismissal of his application for contact with his son, B, who was 12 years old. The court held that, in circumstances where the mother showed the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and B had expressed a wish to have no contact with the father, the judge had been entitled to conclude that contact would not have worked. 

Criminal evidence – Unreasonable verdict – Mutual corroboration. High Court of Justiciary: Refusing an appeal concerning whether a jury's verdicts were unreasonable by an appellant who went to trial on an indictment containing numerous charges relating to three principal complainers and was convicted of four charges (two rapes, one indecent assault and one assault) and acquitted of another thirteen charges in relation to the second complainer and convicted of all four charges (two rapes, one indecent assault and one assault) in relation to the third complainer, the court rejected the appellant's complaint that it was unreasonable for the jury to accept the second complainer's evidence on only four charges standing their apparent rejection of her evidence in respect of the other thirteen. 

Sentencing – Assault – Shaken baby. High Court of Justiciary: Allowing an appeal against sentence by an appellant who pled guilty to assaulting his infant son by repeatedly shaking him to his severe injury and permanent impairment and was sentenced to 7 years and 6 months' imprisonment, the court held that the starting point of 10 years the sentencing judge selected was excessive when compared with previous decisions of the appeal court and one of 7 years' imprisonment would better reflect the factors relevant to the sentencing decision; accordingly it quashed the sentence imposed and substituted one of 5 years 3 months, that being a sentence of 7 years discounted by 25%.