Chloe Branton

Barrister at Parklane Plowden Chambers, specialising in children law. Fan of all things theatre. Based in the North East. Disabled lawyer.

[sash✩on the yuribus @gentlemanlister]

reform has banned the pride flag at shibden hall, aka anne lister’s house. i am so fucking angry. how fucking miserable and pathetic do you have to be to ban pride flags at a place that means so much to so many people.

[Family Law News @familylaw]

A, B & C, Re (Children: Shortage of Adoptive Placements) [2026] EWFC 127 (B) (17 April 2026): Care proceedings. Judgment explaining why local authority's plan for adoption not approved, and application for placement order refused. https://t.co/Qf1YtEZsHK

[Family Law News @familylaw]

L, Re the Child [2026] EWFC 123 (B) (03 June 2026): Application by mother to change the first, middle and surname(s) of the child. Permission granted for small change to first name, but otherwise application dismissed. https://t.co/VhnwTOXCu6

[Anna Soubry 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇦🇪🇺🖤🤍 @Anna_Soubry]

Hi @DavidLammy
Please could you get your officials to turn the heating off at. Nottingham Crown Court ?
Might save us all a bob or two. …..

The absolute state of our courts is a disgrace
It’s under investment not juries that has broken our criminal justice system

@CourtsIdle @TheCriminalBar

[Family Law News @familylaw]

A Local Authority v CD & Ors [2026] EWHC 980 (Fam): Care proceedings. Applications to determine whether identities of various professionals should continue to be withheld from parents, on basis that they pose a risk of serious harm to the professionals. https://t.co/4R7jTd0vEs

[Family Law News @familylaw]

In the matter of X and Y (Children: Adoption Order: Setting Aside) [2026] UKSC 13: Appeal by adoptive mother against decision that the court has no power to set aside a validly made adoption order, other than by way of appeal. Appeal dismissed. https://t.co/BIqhZwrhnW

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

Sometimes I honestly cannot believe the government is seriously proposing people could be convicted and sent to prison for TWO YEARS (two years?!?) by the Magistrates’ Court with the automatic right of appeal safeguard removed.

You read direct research like this 👇🏼 and shudder.

[Janet Eastham @JanetEastham]

EXC: Starmer found scrapping jury trials led to wrongful convictions in NI

In report unearthed by @Telegraph his delegation found removing juries from Troubles courts meant cases “failing to secure reliable convictions based on properly tested evidence”

https://t.co/aN9MUwZic9

[The Secret Barrister 🦋 @BarristerSecret]

Well, they did.

@UKLabour MPs placed unthinking tribalism ahead of evidence and principle.

They fell for the untruths and misdirections, the cynical emotive rhetoric and the lazy, cowardly refusal of the government to debate on the facts.

We deserve better politicians.

[The Secret Barrister 🦋 @BarristerSecret]

NEW BLOGPOST: Keir Starmer and David Lammy are taking an extraordinarily dangerous gamble with our individual liberty

For any MP unsure of how to vote on the government’s proposals to restrict trial by jury.

https://t.co/uEc72prMnz

[Nikki da Costa @nmdacosta]

A mockery of an impact assessment for loss of right to trial by jury.

[Lucy Moon 🌙 @iamnotlucymoon]

i am legally obliged to disclose if i received a lip gloss for free in an IG story yet rishi sunak can write a column for the sunday times endorsing AI without having to share that he’s paid by Anthropic

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

Hello exclusively to David Lammy! 👋

SIXTY FIVE courtrooms sit empty today. Empty.

80,000 cases in the queue.

Shall we open, staff and fund them?

Instead of restricting jury trial for thousands of voters?

Hold rape trials in them?

And if not, why not?

[Joanna Hardy-Susskind @Joanna__Hardy]

There are press reports today that the jury trial restrictions will be ‘watered down’ by adding two magistrates to the single judge.

A panel of three. One judge. Two magistrates.

Here’s why it’s not watered down, why it’s no compromise, and why we should hold the line 👇🏼

[Chloe Branton @ChloeLBranton]

@Rabbit67Law @kirkkorner @mrchrisjohn @KarlTurnerMP A clause that provides a set date at which a policy will end and then be reviewed and reflected upon before consideration is given to it continuing or not

[Mary Aspinall-Miles @MAMBarLife]

Want to make a dent in the criminal courts’ backlog?
Prisoner transport service should be returned to being part of public services.

[BBC Politics @BBCPolitics]

"We're starting to lose sight of what we are trying to do in our courts... we are looking for justice"

Barrister Joanna Hardy-Susskind discusses reform of the justice system in England and Wales on #PoliticsLive

https://t.co/c7Zp3mr1ux

[The CBA @TheCriminalBar]

BBC News cites push back by CBA Chair Riel Karmy-Jones KC on @DavidLammy’s plans to curb the right to trial by jury, and the Government proposal for judge-only trials.
“Riel Karmy-Jones KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said that it was not juries that had caused the unprecedented delays - but years of underfunding.
"Imposing an untried, untested layer of complexity and cost in the form of any new division of the Crown Court on our desperately underfunded system with its crumbling infrastructure is counter intuitive," she said.”

https://t.co/MtC4dWyevF

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

"Saying he's got experience in the Middle East therefore he's well suited is like saying Harold Shipman should run a care home because he has experience of old people"

@owenjonesjourno on the idea that Tony Blair should run Gaza #GMB

[Family Law News @familylaw]

S (Parental Responsibility), Re [2025] EWFC 324 (B): F's application for PR in relation to child living with maternal grandmother under SGO. Found that F's motive was to interfere or undermine the grandmother's care of the child. Application refused. https://t.co/1RfKhsNSjk