3PB’s Sarah Jennings review of the Family Courts’ remote working published in Family Law Week

28th May 2020

3PB’s specialist family barrister Sarah JenningsSarah JenningsCall: 2009 has reviewed for Family Law Week the experience of remote working in Bristol’s Family Courts.

On 23rd March 2020, the government responded to the Coronavirus epidemic with strict lockdown measures. This quickly led to the closure of court centres across the country which meant new ways of working for those in the legal profession. In the weeks that followed, everyone in the field of family law worked tirelessly to ensure that urgent child protection matters were dealt with fairly and justly.

On the 16th April 2020, over 200 members of the legal profession and social work professionals participated in an urgent mock child protection hearing in the Bristol Family Courts which was led by HHJ Wildblood QC.

In this article in Family Law Week, Sarah reviews what was learnt from the mock hearing and what can be done to move forward in this new world of remote hearings and paperless courts.

To read the full article please click here.

To discuss this article further with Sarah or to instruct her on a family matter, please contact her clerks Robert Leonard on [email protected], Ian Charlton on [email protected] or Tom Cox on [email protected].