Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Open justice and family privacy: Court of Appeal (England and Wales) rejects expansive non-party access to documents, balancing Articles 8 and 10 ECHR, in Newman v Southampton City Council

Published on: 09 April 2021

Published by a LexisNexis Information Law expert

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Article summary

Newman v Southampton City Council and others [2021] EWCA Civ 437 What are the practical implications of this case?

This ruling reinforces that, as the Supreme Court confirmed in PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2016] AC 1081, appeal courts are slow to disturb a trial judge’s evaluation of the balance between the competing rights under Article 8 and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, provided the judge has conducted the exercise correctly.

The dispute centred on how the principle of open justice operates where privacy and freedom of expression are finely balanced. It offers a practical illustration—against particularly delicate facts—of the degree to which written material placed before the court in proceedings should be available to non-parties, and the form in which such access ought to be granted.

More broadly, the case exemplifies the ongoing tension in the family courts between transparency and the protection of the privacy of those involved in family proceedings, especially children. It is accurate to note that, in recent years, a number of steps have been...

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