Practice Direction: Attendance of Media Representatives at Hearings in Family Proceedings (No 2)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 2009 |
| Date | 2009 |
| Year | 2009 |
| Court | Family Division |
Practice – Family proceedings – Hearings – Media attendance – Guidance.
Cases referred to in Practice DirectionClayton v Clayton[2006] EWCA Civ 878, [2006] 2 FCR 405, [2007] 1 All ER 1197, [2006] Fam 83, [2006] 3 WLR 599, [2007] 1 FLR 11.
GIO Personal Investment Services Ltd v Liverpool and London Steamship Protection and Indemnity Association Ltd (FAI General Insurance Co Ltd intervening) [1999] 1 WLR 984, CA.
SIR MARK POTTER P.This Practice Direction below is made by the President of the Family Division under the powers delegated to him by the Lord Chief Justice under Sch 2, Pt 1, para 2(2) of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, and is approved by Bridget Prentice, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, by the authority of the Lord Chancellor.
1. Introduction[1.1] This Practice Direction supplements r 10.28 of the Family Proceedings Rules 1991, SI 1991/1247 (FPR 1991) and deals with the right of representatives of news gathering and reporting organisations (media representatives) to attend at hearings of family proceedings which take place in private subject to the discretion of the court to exclude such representatives from the whole or part of any hearing on specified grounds1 . It takes effect on 27 April 2009.
2. Matters unchanged by the rule[2.1] Rule 10.28(1) contains an express exception in respect of hearings which are conducted for the purpose of judicially assisted conciliation or negotiation and media representatives do not have a right to attend these hearings. Financial Dispute Resolution hearings will come within this exception. First hearing dispute resolution appointments in private law Children Act cases will also come within this exception to the extent that the judge plays an active part in the conciliation process. Where the judge plays
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1 It does not, accordingly, apply where hearings are held in open court where the general public including media representatives may attend as of right, such as committal hearings or the hearing of matrimonial or civil partnership causes.
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no part in the conciliation process or where the conciliation element of a hearing is complete and the judge is adjudicating upon the issues between the parties, media representatives should be permitted to attend, subject to the discretion of the court to exclude them on the specified grounds. Conciliation meetings or negotiation conducted between the parties with the assistance of an officer of the service or a Welsh Family Proceedings officer, and without the presence of the judge, are not ‘hearings’ within the meaning of this rule and media representatives have no right to attend such appointments. The exception in r 10.28(1) does not operate to exclude media representatives from:
• hearings to consider applications brought under Pts IV and V of the Children Act 1989, including case management conferences and issues resolution hearings
• hearings relating to findings of fact
• interim hearings
• final...
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Re X (A Child) (Residence and Contact: Rights of Media Attendance)
...be impeded or prejudiced (para (4)(b)). Practice Direction: Attendance of Media Representatives at Hearings in Family Proceedings (No 2)[2009] 2 FCR 611, the Practice Direction approved by the Lord Chancellor in conjunction with the rule change, contemplated that applications to exclude med......