The RCJ comes into the Financial Remedies transparency pilot on 11 November. Broadly, if the media/legal bloggers attend, the court will make a Transparency Order which restricts identification of the parties and their specific financial instruments but otherwise allows the media to report freely.
What is the transparency pilot?
The Transparency Pilot is a UK government-initiated scheme that allows accredited journalists and legal bloggers to report on family court cases, The pilot aims to improve public trust in the court system by encouraging journalists to witness cases and raise awareness of the family courts.
The pilot is subject to strict rules of anonymity, including:
- Judges make a “transparency order” that sets out what can and cannot be reported
- Reporters cannot name or take photos of people involved in the case
- Family members can speak to journalists without risk of contempt of court
- Journalists can quote family members in their reporting, as long as the family is effectively anonymized
The pilot began in January 2023 in Leeds, Cardiff, and Carlisle. The reporting pilot is active in 19 DFJ areas across England and Wales.
You can read the President’s latest guidance Reporting.PilotScheme.Final.President and the template order is here ReportingPilot.TransparencyOrder.