Sharing information outside of court in family proceedings: updated guidance

Sharing information about a case is sometimes called ‘disclosure of information’ or ‘communication of information’.

The law allows you to share information about your case only in specific circumstances. This is to protect the privacy of the people involved in your case, particularly children.

If you share certain information about a case relating to a child it is possible you could be fined or imprisoned for being in contempt of court. Or you might commit a criminal offence, if you share certain information while a case is still going on.

When you can share information about a case

You can share information about your case with:

• your legal representatives
• other people who are parties in the case and their legal representatives
• an expert appointed by the court
• Cafcass or Cafcass Cymru officers who are involved in the case
• a local authority independent reviewing officer
• the Legal Aid Agency

You may share information with any other person where this is necessary for you to get:

• private confidential advice to help you present your case or get support during proceedings
• mediation or help to sort out a disagreement between yourself and another person involved in the case
• advice on or help with a complaint about the proceedings or someone involved in them (such as an expert witness involved the proceedings)

Other reasons for sharing information

There are some other specific situations where you are allowed to share certain information about your case. There are rules of court (the Family Procedure Rules 2010 and practice directions) which set out who you can share what information with, and for what purpose. For example, you can share a copy of the judgment in your case with a police officer for the purposes of a criminal investigation. Or you can share any information from the case with a person who is a healthcare professional to obtain healthcare or counselling for you or the child.

If you want to share information about your case for a reason, or with a person, not covered in this guide, you must first ask your legal representative for advice.

If you are representing yourself, you must first ask the judge or magistrates involved in the case for advice and permission.

Also, the judge or magistrates dealing with your case might make an order of the court stating what information can, or cannot, be shared about your case.

What you can share about a case

What you can and cannot share can be complicated. To be sure about what you can share, you should first check with your legal representative.

If you do not have a legal representative, you should check the Family Procedure Rules 2010 and any orders made in your case.

If you are still unsure, you should ask the court for clarification and, if necessary, for permission to share.

However, there are some important points that you should be aware of.

When sharing information is a criminal offence

It is a criminal offence to share information with any section of the public that identifies or is likely to identify:

• a child as being involved in proceedings under the Children Act 1989 or the Adoption and Children Act 2002
• the address or school of such a child

This applies while a court case is ongoing. It only does not apply if the court has made an order saying you can share this information.

If you commit this offence, you could be fined.

When sharing information could be contempt of court

Contempt of court can occur when someone does something that the judge decides disrespects the court or disrupts court proceedings.

A judge might decide that there has been a contempt of court if information from court proceedings relating to a child is shared with people not directly involved in the court proceedings, depending on the type of information and who it is shared with.

This applies while a case is ongoing and after it has ended.

If you commit contempt of court, you could be fined or imprisoned.

You are not allowed to share any documents from the case or tell people what is in them, unless the rules or a court order allow it. This means you cannot usually share or tell people about:

• documents from the court file
• witness statements
• accounts of what has been said or done in court hearings
• the reasons the court gives for making its decision (referred to as the ‘judgment’ if given by a judge or ‘the written facts and reasons’ if given by magistrates)
• any information which the court has ordered must not be shared

It is not contempt of court if you share information:

• where rules of court allow you to
• where a court has made an order saying it can be shared

Unless the court has made an order saying it is not allowed in your case, you can share:

• the order made by the court – you still have to protect the identity of the child the case is about
• the date, time and place of future hearings
• information about the nature of the dispute in the court proceedings – though not information about what happens in hearings or the contents of court documents

If you are not sure what is and is not ‘the nature of the dispute’, you should check with your legal representative or the court.

Find a list of other information that you can share, and who you can share it with, in the Family Procedure Rules.

The judge can always adjust these rules. They may say you can share something the rules do not normally allow you to share or that you cannot share something the rules normally allow.

However, sharing any information with any section of the public could still be a criminal offence if the case is still ongoing and the information identifies or is likely to identify the child the case is about.

If a judgment in your case has been published, with details anonymised, you should not say anything that would identify any of the family members, while the case is still going.

Read the guidance here.