How the Sara Sharif decision aligns transparency in the Family Courts with the wider justice system

"The decision of the appeal court today further aligns transparency in the Family Courts with the justice system generally.

"Judges accept, when taking on their public role and duty, that there will likely be cases where their decisions will be subject to scrutiny and criticism. Until recently, however, Family Court judges were largely shielded from such exposure, as cases tended to remain private and unreported, unless judgements were published. The scrutiny they would face was largely from the families in the cases, their legal teams and other limited professionals who may have been given permission to see all or parts of the judgements.  

"However, the development of open justice in the Family Courts over the last few years, since the care proceedings in the Sharif case were decided, now exposes the judges in those decisions in a way that they would not have predicted. This happens at a time when feeling regarding the case is running high and some are looking to hold to account those in the Family justice system who they believe failed Sara.

"The challenge now is to ensure that the rights of the judges to their own safety, privacy and family lives are not compromised as part of open justice in the Family Courts."

An extract of Deborah's comments was published in The Times, 6 February 2025.