In the recent case of Lancashire County Council v M & Others the presiding judge opted to write his judgement using plain English rather than adopting usual legalise. The approach while a novel one highlights the important role that the judiciary can play in enabling persons to understand court proceedings. The judgement was written in a manner which could be more readily accessible by the children and mother at the centre of the proceedings.
In the judgment for example the judge tackles explaining why the children were taken away from the parents by saying ‘Also, children are not taken away because parents are rude or difficult or because they have strange views. The only reason to take children away is because they need protecting from harm.’ From even this extremely short excerpt it is clear that it is written for the people directly affected by the judgment rather the legal community, at a later stage of the judgment he even uses a smiley face to describe a drawing that had been created by the mother.
The law by its nature can be complex and at times difficult to distill. However, where court proceedings have, as was the case here, a direct impact on the welfare of children it is heartening to see such an approach by a judge. By way of background the four children at the centre of the proceedings were taken into care over concerns for their welfare due to the mother’s relationship with the father of her two younger children. He had been imprisoned for burglary, held to be of an aggressive character who held extremist views. Proceedings were instigated following removal of the children from school to travel to a ‘Muslim country’ and possibly on to Syria. The family were intercepted in Turkey and returned to the UK where the parents were arrested and the children placed in care.
Clear here for the full judgment.