Most family cases are heard in the Family Court. A limited number of cases are heard in the Family Division of the High Court, for example cases involving international child abduction and cases involving the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court. You can learn more about when the family court publish judgments in their practice guidance (opens as PDF).

This court began to regularly transfer judgments to The National Archives in 2022. The oldest judgment from this court included in Find Case Law is from 2014.

You can read more about it on the Family Justice System page on the HM Courts and Tribunals Service website.

Coverage on Find Case Law

Date range — 2014 to 2026

What’s included — We currently hold 2,072 documents from 2014 to 2026.

Transfer method — This court began regularly transferring judgments to The National Archives in 2022. The oldest judgment from this court included in Find Case Law is from 2014. Judgments from 2014–2022 were sourced from other collections.

Recent judgments

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Use the search box to find specific cases from the Family Court, or visit Advanced search to combine court filters with other search criteria.

Understanding Family Court judgments

Family Court neutral citation numbers use the format [Year] EWFC [Number]. For example, [2024] EWFC 141. Citations with a (B) suffix indicate that the judge is a District or Circuit judge rather than a High Court judge from the Family Division.

About Family Court

The Family courts in England and Wales are the Family Court and the Family Division of the High Court. Disputes touch on many aspect of family life and cases can involve marriage, divorce, child arrangements, protecting children, adoption, surrogacy, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, international child abduction and the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court.