The Court of Appeal has handed down an important judgment relevant to public law practitioners in Re D (Threshold Findings and Final Orders at IRH) [2025] EWCA Civ 1362
Jay Banerji and Joseph Landman successfully represented the appellant father, instructed by Kevin Skinner of Goodman Ray.
Lord Justice Cobb, in delivering the judgment of the court, reaffirmed the judicial duty of rigorously and independently assessing and articulating ‘threshold’ findings under s.31(2) of the Children Act 1989 prior to the making of care and placement orders. The judgment importantly addresses standard case management orders and the practice of treating failure by parents to respond to threshold as deemed acceptance of the local authority’s threshold allegations, recommending an alternative approach. The court identified that that practice risks having the unintended consequence of reversing the burden of proof, and rendering the determination of threshold an administrative, rather than judicial, act.
Click here to view the judgment.