Privilege, Privacy and Confidentiality in Family Proceedings

The focus of Privilege, Privacy and Confidentiality in Family Proceedings is the key issues and principles of privilege, privacy and confidentiality that arise in family court proceedings. Confidentiality arises when someone has knowledge of confidential material and that the law considers it to be fair for the confidant to be prevented from passing on that information. Privacy - now through the prism of article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 - refers to material to which only an individual personally has access. There is a public interest maintaining confidentiality, subject to narrow exceptions. These subjects are central to family and children proceedings. To look at confidentiality, privilege and privacy from the point of view of the family law practitioner - judge, solicitor or barrister, doctor or social worker - the law must be seen as part of the mainstream of the common law. Is a child entitled to confidentiality; or is it correct, as Working Together guidance says, that the mature child's confidences should be 'shared'? When can privilege be overridden; and when does it not apply? Does without prejudice privilege cover a mediator; and when are closed materials procedures appropriate in children proceedings? These and many more questions are covered in this book.

David Burrows, is a solicitor advocate who deals with all aspects of family breakdown. As a solicitor advocate he has appeared in family courts and appellate courts at all levels (eg in May 2006 he appeared in two cases in the Supreme Court (then House of Lords); and in one he was the first solicitor to lead as advocate). As practitioner, teacher and writer he has a specialist interest in law in relation to confidentiality and privacy; and concerning rules of evidence and procedure in family proceedings. He was chairman of SFLA (now Resolution) in 2003/4, and remains an active member. He is a founder (and continuing) contributor to Family Court Practice (the 'Red Book': first edition 1993). He was secretary to the steering committee for the first mediation service in UK in 1975/6, and of its trustees thereafter. He is the author of Children's Views and Evidence (Bloomsbury Professional) and also Family Law Briefing(available on Bloomsbury Professional's Familty Law online service).