Re B (A Child)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Justice Thorpe,Lord Justice Gage,Lord Justice Toulson |
| Judgment Date | 16 May 2007 |
| Neutral Citation | [2007] EWCA Civ 556 |
| Docket Number | Case No: B4/2007/0661 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Civil Division) |
| Date | 16 May 2007 |
[2007] EWCA Civ 556
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE
COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM TRURO COUNTY COURT
(HIS HONOUR JUDGE VINCENT)
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Lord Justice Thorpe
Lord Justice Gage and
Lord Justice Toulson
Case No: B4/2007/0661
MR R TOLSON QC (instructed by Messrs Hancock Caffin) appeared on behalf of the Applicant.
MS J HALL (instructed by Messrs John Boyle & Co) appeared on behalf of the Respondent Father.
MR F FEEHAN (Messrs Hine Downing & County Legal Service) appeared on behalf of the Respondent Local Authority.
On 22 March HHJ Vincent, sitting in Truro, gave directions in a care case brought by the local authority to determine the future of a little boy named J, who had been separated from his parents at the outset because of the very worrying history of dangerousness in both the father, who is roughly twice the mother's age, and in the couple, who have spectacularly failed to provide good enough parenting for an earlier child. So at this first directions appointment, HHJ Vincent was rightly concerned to keep the future proceedings within tight boundaries, giving proper reflection to the history and the past litigation concerning the older born child, A, with which he was completely familiar having delivered the judgment that directed A on the road to adoption.
At the directions hearing the objective of the representative of the mother and of the father was to persuade HHJ Vincent to allow the instruction of experts. The local authority had conscientiously prepared their application for a care order, founding themselves on reports from Dr Doble, Ms Long and Elizabeth Gates, who had all been involved in the earlier proceedings relating to A. All of them were clear in their opinion that the prospects for the new baby were extremely poor if left with the natural parents and so the local authority's case was already fully-fledged and strong.
HHJ Vincent accepted well articulated arguments from counsel for the local authority that the experts whom the parents sought to instruct would really add nothing. Indeed, in relation to the Independent Social Worker, Karen Tudor, whom they sought to instruct, the judge completely concurred with the local authority's submission that that lady really had nothing of relevance to say because the issue in the case was not the mother's capacity to do ordinary motherly things but rather the risk that the father posed, both to the mother's stability and to any child in the family.
In his brief judgment the judge explained that the instruction of Karen Tudor would be to miss the point. It would simply result in an assessment of something that did not represent the major impediment to natural parenting. His judgment was immediately challenged with a Notice of Appeal, I think filed on the following day, but unfortunately it did not get to Ward LJ until 8 May, when he ordered this expedited...
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L (A Child)
...her judgment with the following paragraphs: — 4. I have been referred to two authorities, Re B (Care Proceedings: Expert Witness) [2007] EWCA Civ 556, [2007] 2 FLR 979(Re B) and Re K (Care order) [2007] EWCA (Civ) 697, [2007] 2 FLR 1066 ( Re K). They are authorities which are well-known to ......
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TL v Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council and Others
...would be dismissed (see [53], [55]–[56], [58]–[61], below). Cases referred to in judgmentsB (Care Proceedings: Expert Witness), Re[2007] EWCA Civ 556, [2007] 2 FLR 979. Bellenden (formerly Satterthwaite) v Satterthwaite [1948] 1 All ER 343, CA. C (A Minor) (Interim Care Order: Residential A......
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Re T (Residential Parenting Assessment)
...where they risk losing their children forever". 81 The next decision that he cited was Re B (Care Proceedings: Expert Witness) [2007] EWCA Civ 556 which was decided only two months after Re L and H. 82 The parents in Re B were unable to provide good enough parenting for their elder child wh......