This opinion piece picks up on the recent review recommending greater transparency about what goes on in the family courts. The President of the Family Division has called the pace of change 'glacial' perhaps signaling that the pace will now pick up.
It will not be easy. To protect children, reporting will need to be anonymised. It is unclear whether the media will be given access to court papers but if they are to have them, who will have the time, or incur the costs of undertaking that anonymisation. Family lawyers already know the inefficiencies and delays in the courts; if an additional burden is added to the court workload, how will that impact upon the parties having to use the court?
The public should be educated about what goes on in the family court - but how will they get a balanced view? Biased accounts of what has happened to friends, or the hopelessly inaccurate portrayal of lawyers and the family justice system in TV dramas are incredibly unhelpful. It would be better to convey a more accurate picture but will that actually happen? Opening up the court will only be one part of the equation. Many cases are unlikely to excite the media sufficiently to report upon - they will be mundane save for those involved in them. If you are well known and are more news worthy, presumably you have a greater risk of media interest. If the details of behaviour in a case are particularly severe, presumably that will also make it of more interest. Will that increase the stress or pressure of those forced to use the courts? These are but a few of the issues to be considered.
Another issue will be that those who can afford it can use various (better) methods of resolving family disputes, such as mediation and arbitration. Such options can guarantee anonymity by keeping disputes away from the court. Effectively those who can afford it could opt out of potential media scrutiny. This will be a positive for those families but could lead to some imbalance in reporting as parties that don't use these options are likely to be the higher conflict cases.