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Reported Case: Six Members of Chambers Appear in the Complex Care Proceedings of A LA v X & Y and Others
Five judgments were handed down on Wednesday in A LA v X & Y and Others, complex, long-running care proceedings that involved six members of chambers at different stages:
- John Tughan KC and Rebecca Foulkes for the second respondent (first and second judgments)
- Professor Jo Delahunty KC (second to fifth judgments) and James Nottage (fourth and fifth judgments) for the children through their children’s guardian; and
- First Deirdre Fottrell KC (first judgment) and then Sam King KC (second to fifth judgments) for the fifth respondent/intervenor: the subject children’s older sibling.
The fourth judgment, A LA v X & Y and Ors (No 4: Welfare and Reporting of Judgments) [2025] EWFC 126, has already attracted considerable press attention and comment. However, those interested by the coverage should read the judgment for the full account, as Mrs Justice Theis carried out what she described as “an extraordinarily difficult balancing exercise between the competing Article 10 and 8 rights that are engaged” in deciding, ultimately, that the parents, X (a primary school teacher) and Y (a barrister specialising in children cases who sat as a Deputy District Judge), ought not to be named in circumstances where they had had significant findings made against them of physical and emotional abuse (X) and failure to protect (Y) in respect of their adoptive children.
The judgments are:
- A LA v X & Y and Others (No 1: Determination of Oxfordshire argument) [2024] EWFC 445
- A LA v X & Y and Others (No 2: Fact-finding) [2024] EWFC 365
- A LA v X & Y and Others (No. 3: Application under r. 27.11(3) FPR 2010 to exclude a member of the press) [2025] EWFC 49
- A LA v X & Y and Others (No 4: Welfare and Reporting of Judgments) [2025] EWFC 126
- A LA v X & Y and Others (No 5: Transparency order) [2025] EWFC 140
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