“Open justice. The words express a principle at the heart of our system of justice and vital to the rule of law. The rule of law is a fine concept but fine words butter no parsnips. How is the rule of law itself to be policed? It is an age old question. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes – who will guard the guards themselves?
In a democracy, where power depends on the consent of the people governed, the answer must lie in the transparency of the legal process. Open justice lets in the light and allows the public to scrutinise the workings of the law, for better or for worse.”
[Lord Justice Toulson in Guardian News and Media]
Open Justice related blog posts
SRA v Claire Frances Gill – Notes from the case management hearing
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal has been considering case management directions in the matter of a Carter-Ruck solicitor alleged to have “sent or arranged to be sent correspondence which contained an improper threat of litigation”. These are my notes from the case management hearing in the matter of the SRA v Claire Frances Gill. As the…
High Court grants non-party access to trial documents
The mouseinthecourt has been successful in a resisted application for access to witness statements and skeleton arguments during an insolvency trial. The principle “that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done” is often an unachievable ambition in the modern era, with the significant reliance on written…
A fight for a contempt of court judgment
Slightly from the archives – a report about the difficulties I faced when trying to obtain a High Court judgment in 2022. Prompted by a recent post from Celia Kitzinger entitled ‘Contempt of court proceedings: Are they transparent?’ – (Spoiler alert: they’re not) I recalled an exchange of e-mails I had with court staff coming…
East London Family Court holds ‘secret’ public hearing
A so-called committal hearing, where a dad faced up to two years in prison for allegedly breaching a non-molestation order, was not listed in public contrary to court rules. In February 2025 a published judgment caught my eye. A key point of public interest was nestled away in the penultimate paragraph. The claimant, a mother,…
Skeleton arguments in judge anonymity appeal case
Two journalists have appealed the decision of a High Court judge to grant anonymity to members of the judiciary who were involved in proceedings concerning Sara Sharif and her siblings. The father and stepmother of Sara Sharif were found guilty of her murder last year. In December 2024 Mr Justice Williams imposed an order preventing…
Crown Court Judge relents after threat of judicial review
A circuit judge has approved a transcript request made by the mouseinthecourt after we persisted through several layers of resistance. We don’t claim that this is a particularly thrilling read suffice to say it’s a textbook example of the day-to-day difficulties that even simple requests for information cause. Whilst we make no suggestion that the…
A morning at Snaresbrook reveals court under pressure
The mouseinthecourt spent the morning live-tweeting from the busiest crown court in England and Wales – Snaresbrook. “You’ll come to a gate which looks like the entrance to a graveyard that hasn’t been looked after for a while” is how a barrister once described how the public entrance to Snaresbrook Crown court might look like.…
Court Documents – LCF Trial
A civil trial between the Joint Administrators of the now failed investment company London Capital & Finance PLC, and those said to have unlawfully benefitted from the misappropriation of funds started on 19th February 2024 and is expected to last 20-weeks. The defendants deny any accusations of wrongdoing. The mouseinthecourt is exclusively publishing documents from…
High Court approves substantial open justice request in LCF trial
The High Court has approved three applications for skeleton arguments, witness statements, and copies of the daily transcripts made under the open justice principle in a request made by the mouseinthecourt. The provision of these documents will bring a significant level of transparency to the 20-week-trial between the administrators of a failed investment company and…
Open Justice at the War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation tribunal
As the ‘Veteran Law Project’ is launched by former army officer Charlie Radclyffe, the mouseinthecourt dropped into an Armed Forces Compensation tribunal hearing to see what’s going on. “The Veteran Law Project aims to improve the experiences of service personnel and veterans harmed by their military service” says the blub on its homepage with “Open…
HMCTS did consult on ‘seriously inaccurate’ public guidance document, FOI request reveals
An HMCTS ‘guide for members of the public’ on ‘How you can attend or access courts or tribunals’ was criticised by the mouseinthecourt as unhelpful, devoid of any tangible detail, and in some cases just plain wrong. The Courts and Tribunals Observers’ Network described the document as paying “lip service to the principle of open…
Churnalism – the case of Mr Farbrother
Should news articles based solely upon a police press release be identified as such? I think they should – anything that purports to be high quality public interest journalism, but is in fact low quality churnalism, should be labelled as such. Churnalism is, to put it bluntly, the copy and pasting of press releases, perhaps…
Tribunal judges say no change needed in consultation on open justice
A recent consultation by the Tribunal Procedure Committee on non-party access to documents has concluded that no change is necessary, an FOI request made by the mouseinthecourt has revealed. This is despite an acknowledgement that there is no rule expressly providing a right of access by third parties, unlike the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR 5.4C)…
Fine words – but new HMCTS public guidance falls short
“fine words butter no parsnips” said Lord Justice Toulson in his infamous opening paragraph of a judgment on open justice. But as HMCTS publish ‘a guide for members of the public’ on ‘How you can attend or access courts or tribunals’ the mouseinthecourt criticises the new guidance as unhelpful, devoid of any tangible detail, and…
Submissions relating to the call for evidence concerning open justice
In 2022, the Justice Select Committee began examining the effects of digitisation on the courts, the media and open justice. This concluded with the publication of its report – Court Reporting in the Digital Age. The MOJ launched a call for evidence which concluded in September 2023. Here are the written submissions made by the mouseinthecourt.…
Inside the Court of Protection Rule Committee
After lengthy correspondence the Court of Protection Rule Committee have released their meeting minutes to the mouseinthecourt. The committee was described by the then vice-president Mr Justice Hayden as “the operational spine of the court”. They provide a fascinating insight not only into being able to see what was discussed but also conversely what isn’t.…
Criminal Procedure Rule Committee change rules promoting open justice
In the same month that the Ministry Of Justice wants “to hear your ideas on how the government can reinforce and enhance open justice in today’s era” the procedure rule committee responsible for the criminal jurisdiction is removing rules allowing note-taking by laptops and live-tweeting by legal commentators. The Criminal Procedure Rules govern the way…
Court of Protection listing mishap leaves observers in dark
The Civil and Family Listing Manager at the Leeds Combined Court Centre has offered a “sincere apology” after “failings by this office did indeed deprive you of the opportunity to observe the hearing”. The hearing in question was before Court of Protection judge Mr Justice Poole and was part of a long running covert medication…
A 140-day fight for a judgment
A reserved judgment, e-mailed in secret to the parties, was only disclosed to the mouseinthecourt some 140 days after being handed down. Part of a series looking at Secret Courts Frazer Fearnhead is an interesting chap. He was told he had the “most ridiculous valuation ever” when he pitched a company called House Crowd on BBC’s…
The RCJ’s secret Crown Courts
Nestled away in the labyrinth of corridors within London’s grand Royal Courts of Justice, hidden away behind frosted glass doors, are a couple of Crown Courts dishing out justice almost in private. You won’t see their cases listed on the daily RCJ cause list. Or in the display cabinets: Or on the notice boards outside…
Justice Committee report – A blogger responds
“The Justice Committee has warned that the court system needs to do more to support open justice in the digital age” Reads the opening line on the publication page of the report ‘Court system failing to support public understanding of justice system’, which was published yesterday. On the whole it is a great report and…
Entry Denied at Barnet Civil Justice Centre
A trip to North London in October 2022 to observe the latest development in a series of mortgage fraud hearings almost had to be aborted after court staff denied entry. Some polite but persistent resistance was needed in order to gain access and report on the case. Part of a series looking at Secret Courts The…
National Archives Judgment policy revealed after FOI request
The new Judgment hosting service at the National Archives have released their draft publishing policy following a FOI Request. The National Archives started publishing “important court and tribunal judgments” on their ‘Find Case Law’ service from April 2022. We’re told this forms part of the MOJ’s commitment to “standardising its approach to the publication of…
Civil Procedure Rule Committee propose major curtailment of Open Justice
The CPRC have launched what I’m describing as “one of the biggest attacks on the principle of open justice in recent times” as they seek to remove the public from public hearings held remotely. As Lord Hewart CJ famously declared, in R v Sussex Magistrates, “… it is not merely of some importance but is of…
Open Justice at the Rule Committee
The Civil Procedure Rule Committee “was set up under the Civil Procedure Act 1997 to make rules of court for the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the County Court.” The principle of Open Justice has been discussed at a number of meetings and passages concerning various topics have been…
Misogyny in the Military & transparency at the Court Martial
As attention is focussed on misogyny in the Police the mouseinthecourt examines how the military deals with cases in the world of the Court Martial. In September last year this correspondent observed and reported on the case of Mr Tevita Logavatu, then aged 21, formally of the Royal Artillery Barracks in Salisbury. Mr Logavatu was…
Open Justice at Sheffield’s ‘Fully Remote Court’
One professionally embarrassed barrister, a man sentenced after telling ex-partner he was “going to slice her up” with a machete and a sad notification that a defendant has passed away – Just a few of the cases the mouseinthecourt observed at Sheffield’s ‘Fully Remote Court’ on a Friday morning. “The fully remote court (FRC) at…
Police Officer “embarrassed & ashamed at the pathetic and nauseating nature” of e-mails sent to victim
Serving Detective Chief Inspector James Mason, 43, received a final written warning after a Police Misconduct Tribunal found his behaviour towards a victim of crime amounted to gross misconduct. We were told that the victim, then a women in her early twenties, was mugged in 2011 while on her way to buy ingredients for dinner.…
An appeal against a sham marriage at the Immigration Tribunal
I’ve spent the morning at Taylor House, the London home of (among other things) the Immigration and Asylum First Tier Tribunal. The security personal at the front desk were rather surprised to see a member of the public and they had to check to see whether I was allowed in. The tribunal handles “appeals against…
The Hidden Hearing
A preliminary hearing before a Birmingham District Judge, which concerned a £14.3m loan crowdfunded by 4,900 retail investors, failed to be listed. Part of a series looking at Secret Courts This was the list of DJ Rouine. It failed to show the 11.00 listing in the matter of Wordley v Lendy. Apparently “Open justice is a…
The Secret Hearing
On 22 March 2021 the High Court unlawfully sat in secret. Despite an assurance I would receive a transcript some 669 days later I’m still waiting. “In light of the failures of the Court to grant you access to the hearing I have begun the process of obtaining a transcript of the hearing, and a…
Open Justice at the not-so-secret Court
Court Report: 10/09/2020 @ The Family Court at Guildford (Heard Remotely) Followers of the ‘Open Justice Court of Protection Project’ will be aware that they do an excellent job in promoting public observation in what The Telegraph once called “the most secretive court in Britain”. The project publishes a daily list on their website highlighting…
A Day at the Magistrates
Those with an interest in Open Justice will be pleased that HMCTS have started to publish Magistrates Lists online and today (Sept 1st) is the first day that the public has been able to remotely access the list by visiting courtserve.net Almost every criminal case passes through the Magistrates Courts either being dealt with here…
Open Justice at Snaresbrook Crown Court during Covid
Court Report: 28th July 2020 @ Snaresbrook Crown Court The principle of Open Justice as Lord Chief Justice Hewart infamously described, “…is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done, but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done”. With the social distancing measures of…
Mouse in the Court 