Transparency in the Financial Remedies Court: Report published

A report into transparency in the Financial Remedies Court (‘FRC’), produced by a group chaired by HHJ Stuart Farquar, was published last week after a detailed consultation.

The group was convened to consider all issues of transparency in the FRC (a specialist court of the Family Court) including publicity of hearings, anonymity on Family Court lists, access to documents by reporters, and publication of judgments. The group sought input from specialists in other Divisions and overseas jurisdictions. Adam Wolanski KC, who was assisted by Hope Williams, was invited by the group to submit a paper on the King’s Bench Division.

The report makes several recommendations, including that:

1. All Family Court lists should contain the names of the parties and short description of the type of hearing.
2. In any case attended by a reporter, a Reporting Order should be made which, as a standard, would permit reporting subject to anonymisation and allow reporters access to the Form ES1 and position statements.

The report is available here.