Frances Judd QC (Associate Member)
Call 1984 (QC 2006)
Professional Memberships Chairman of the Thames Valley Family Law Bar Association, Sits on the National Committee of the Family Law Bar Association and on the National Executive of the Association of Lawyers for children.
Judicial Office Recorder on the Midland Circuit in 2002
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Profile
- Frances read history at New Hall, Cambridge, was called in 1984 and joined Harcourt Chambers in 1985.
- She is recommended as a leading family law silk in the Chambers UK Guide to the Legal Profession.
Areas of Practice
Family Law
Frances has specialised in family law for over twenty years, increasingly in children’s cases, both in public and private law.
She has extensive experience in public law children’s cases, being regularly briefed by local authorities, parents and guardians, both with and without a junior. She has a particular interest in the following areas:
- cases which involve complex medical evidence where there are allegations of physical abuse, “shaken baby syndrome”, and factitious illness;
- allegations of sexual abuse;
- children’s evidence;
- child trafficking;
- child neglect/failure to thrive/parental mental health problems;
- all aspects of the law in relation to adoption (having appeared in three leading adoption cases in the Court of Appeal).
She has recently co-written a book on the Public Law Outline (the PLO).
Frances regularly represents parents in private law children’s cases, (including those with an international element), and is co-author of a book on contact, Contact: The New Deal (Family Law, 2006).
Since taking silk she has appeared in a number of substantial cases. Her recent cases include representing a local authority in a lengthy trial in the High Court which involved numerous allegations of sexual abuse, and representing parents in several non-accidental injury cases in the High Court, two of which concerned infants who died or suffered severe brain damage allegedly as a result of being shaken. In these cases there was a substantial disagreement between numerous medical experts, all who had given evidence to the Court of Appeal in R v Harris [2005].
She has also appeared regularly in the Court of Appeal, both for Appellants and for Respondents and is frequently instructed to give advice on the merits of proposed appeals.
Publications
- Co-author (with Pressdee, Vater & Baker QC) of The Public Law Outline: The Court Companion (Family Law, 2008).
- Co-author (with the same writers) of Contact: The New Deal (Family Law, 2006).
- Frances regularly gives lectures on public and private law matters, most recently delivering a paper on the representation of children in private law proceedings at a conference in Jersey organised by the Association of Lawyers for Children.
Reported Cases
- S v Oxfordshire County Council [1993] 1 FLR 452 (High Court)
- Oxfordshire County Council v L and F [1997] 1 FLR 235 (High Court)
- Re M (Adoption or Residence Order) [1998] 1 FLR 570 (Court of Appeal)
- Re O (Adoption: Withholding Consent) [1999] 1 FLR 451 (Court of Appeal)
- Re P (Care Orders: Injunctive Relief) [2000] 2 FLR 385 (High Court)
- Re H (Care Order: Appropriate Local Authority) [2004] 1 FLR 534 (Court of Appeal)
- Re N and N [2007] Fam Law 121, [2008] FLR forthcoming (Court of Appeal)
- Re A; Coventry City Council v CC and A [2007] EWCA Civ 1383, [2008] 1 FLR 959 (Court of Appeal)
- Re A [2007] EWCA Civ 1383, [2008] 1 FLR 959;
- Re L (Shared Residence Order) [2009] EWCA Civ 20, [2009] 2 FLR 1157;
- Re L-A (Care: Chronic Neglect) [2009] EWCA Civ 822 (2010 1 FLR forthcoming);
- Re S-B (Children) [2009] UKSC 17 (Supreme Court) (2010 1 FLR forthcoming)
