Cases

Re SC (Children) sub nom SC v HC

Held

Allowing the appeal:

The formalities of committal proceedings are to be strictly observed, although a breach of such formalities may be overlooked if it does not affect the justice of the case. If an order was to have penal consequences it needed to be clear on its face as to precisely what it meant and precisely what it forbade the respondent from doing.

On the evidence the Appellant had not breached the order: she had not disclosed the report to anyone. It was not open to the judge to commit the Appellant for discussing the contents of the report with her Turkish lawyer. A party must be entitled to discuss any issue with their lawyers.

Also