by Natasha in Researching Reform

The family court reporting pilot which allows journalists to write about family cases has been extended so that it now includes a total of 16 courts in England and Wales, including London.

The reporting pilot launched in January 2023 at the Leeds, Cardiff and Carlisle family courts.

The additional courts covered by the pilot from Monday 29 January are:

• North West: Liverpool, Manchester
• North East: West Yorkshire, Kingston-upon-Hull
• Midlands: Nottingham, Stoke, Derby, Birmingham
• London: Central Family Court, East London, West London
• South West: Dorset, Truro
• South East: Luton, Guildford, Milton Keynes

As our readers will know, while I run the Researching Reform site I also have a day job working as a journalist writing stories for UK news outlets about the family courts and child protection.

If you, or someone you know would like me to report on their family case, and the case is being processed in one of the courts above, you are very welcome to get in touch. This can be done either by sending a comment to this site (comments are moderated before they are approved so requests for media coverage will not be published but I will see them), or via email at Sobk13 at gmail dot com.

The judiciary’s press release says “the aim of rolling the pilot out to more courts is to further explore the impact of reporting on the courts system and judges themselves, on those involved in family proceedings, and on the media.”

Families are welcome to look at the kinds of stories I write, which can be found on the MuckRack website for journalists.

A recent story about a mother who had gone through court proceedings was published on this site.

With warm wishes,

Natasha