Public Children Law: A Case Law Compendium

Assists practitioners involved in care cases, whether that individual is a judge, barrister, solicitor, legal executive, social work professional or other type of practitioner.

Busy practitioners, whether in preparation for a conference, in drafting a skeleton argument, or before setting off to court, repeatedly have to search for the same authorities and the same crucial paragraphs within each authority. This new text focussing on public children case law, addresses this need by providing a quick method of sourcing the key extracts from the seminal authorities, all collated in a single volume and presented thematically with cross-references to the full case report.

It presents principles and guidance from cases on an issue by issue basis. The text uses a subheading for each point of principle or guidance made.

It is divided into its broad topics chapter by chapter. Each of those chapters are divided into subtopics. To assist the reader, each chapter begins with a 'Chapter contents' identifying what the subtopics are and where they are located. Each subtopic uses numerous subheadings that identify the relevant principle or guidance from a case.

For each case cited, the following is provided:
- neutral citation (if there is one and a reporting citation if there is not);
- identification of the relevant paragraph or page from the case;
- identification of the judge; and
- quotation from the relevant paragraph or page.

For each point, the most authoritative and / or useful case is given. Excerpts from more than one judgment in any case may be quoted where helpful, such as multiple opinions from a seminal decision of the House of Lords or Supreme Court. Dissenting views are only quoted if that part of the judgment accorded with any majority view. The fact that an overall opinion is dissenting will be identified. More than one case is presented on a single point only if deemed useful. If numerous different principles or aspects of guidance arise from one case it will appear in multiple sections.

The key value of this book is that it locates the relevant case and hones in on the relevant part of that case.