Senior judge records in minute detail the marvels of email on the move

BEING able to access your emails on the move is taken for granted by many – but England’s most senior family court judge thought it was worthy enough for note in High Court records.

Sir James Munby outlined details of his journey home by train on a Friday afternoon in a written ruling on a case in which a father-of-four had wanted to stop his youngest child being adopted.

The judge, who is the President of the Family Division of the High Court and is based at the Royal Courts of Justice, told how he spent about 90 minutes dealing with emails while travelling on May 26.

Sir James, who is in his late 60s, said he got an email from barrister Janet Bazley QC at 16.01. “When I received this email, I was on a train returning home for the weekend, having been sitting at Chester.

“I replied to Ms Bazley (16.15) inquiring whether the adoption order had been sealed. The answers which I got from Ms Bazley and others were not absolutely clear on the point, so I contacted the court office by email seeking clarification.

“Eventually, after the court files had been located, I was emailed (17.23) a copy of the adoption order showing (rather faintly) that it had been sealed on 18 April 2017; the date was confirmed in a further email (17.36) from the court office. Having received that information, and by now on the platform at Reading waiting for my connection, I emailed Ms Bazley and the others (17.42).”

The emails concerned a court battle involving social workers at Brighton & Hove city council that has run for more than four years. Sir James dismissed the man’s application.