Attending a Child Welfare Hearing

Parents who are involved in a family court case should always be allowed to attend Child Welfare Hearings unless the Sheriff has decided that this should not happen. Ordinary Cause Rule 33.22A (5) (https://scotcourts.gov.uk/docs/default-source/scr-ordinary-cause-rules—part-2/chapter-33-(actions-lodged-on-or-after-24-june-2019).doc?sfvrsn=3a7001d2_8) states that “All parties (including a child who has indicated his wish to attend) shall, except on cause shown, attend the Child Welfare Hearing personally.”nnThis was not possible in the early stage of lockdown due to restrictions in the telephone conferences used to conduct child welfare hearings, but now that all sheriff courts are using Webex video conferencing there should not be any problems in parents attending. In our response (https://www.sharedparenting.scot/keep-family-hearings-in-court-not-online/) to the recent consultation on future online and face-to-face court hearings we stressed that family case court hearings should all return to face-to-face in court unless the hearing is only to conduct procedural business.