9 Comments

In April 2017, the Court of Appeal held that Russell had committed a series of "gross and obvious" irregularities in the way in which she had dealt with alleged contempt of court in a case about the alleged abduction of a child. Russell had imprisoned the father of the child for 18 months, holding that he had been in breach of an order which she had not in fact made, and did not have power to make. In doing so, she had made various serious procedural errors. The Court of Appeal awarded damages for wrongful imprisonment against the Lord Chancellor under the Human Rights Act 1998.[9]

In May 2017, Russell allowed an appeal from a relocation decision of Her Honour Judge Owens in the Family Court at Oxford. However, in December 2017, the Court of Appeal held that Russell's decision was 'both wrong and unjust because of serious procedural irregularity', because the 'main basis on which the appeal was allowed by Russell J arose from a legal argument that had not been raised in the grounds of appeal, had not been addressed by either party, and was in any event incorrect'.[

Expand full comment
author

References here:

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2017/237.html

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2017/2121.html

To be fair, these errors were made more than seven years ago.

Expand full comment

What is the point of introducing the style Ms Justice as an alternative to Mrs Justice, when the latter (unlike Mrs) does not indicate the holder’s marital status?

Expand full comment

What follows is on point I think. King John promised his subjects access to his courts. King Charles III does not guarantee his subjects the same. Acting for myself I have an appeal to the High Court. The court office confirm they have all relevant documents from me...

BUT a Catch 22 I think. No issue - ie the case goes nowwhere - till I pay a fee. HM fees office phone system - my only way of paying - is broken. For three days a quite urgent case is becalmed totally, my papers drifting windless as it were.

Expand full comment

For some reason the Bailii link's not working - comes up as not found.

Expand full comment
author

Sorry. I’ve now changed the links.

Expand full comment

Regular occurrence where litigants in person are involved. We are pests.

Expand full comment

All sorts of questions for the Supreme Ct - if they'll hear them fully. Many thanks JR

Expand full comment
author

My pleasure.

And apologies for mistyping the name of the East London Family Court in the version sent out by email 15 minutes ago. Now corrected online. Always worth checking the website for comments, corrections and updates.

Expand full comment