The Times's campaign against 'secrecy' in family courts has provoked a reaction that illustrates this is a "vital debate", the newspaper has claimed.

According to the newspaper, the rules, which ensure that the processes of decisions made within family courts are kept secret, are unfair and lead to miscarriages of justice.

However, in response to the Times's campaign, a number of high-placed legal practitioners have joined the debate, with Britain's senior family judge Sir Mark Potter saying that the privacy offered by reporting restrictions on family courts was there to protect families in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In a letter to the newspaper, he wrote that the deeply personal details sometimes discussed by solicitors in family courts lead to a "minefield of complexity and emotion".

Nevertheless, the Times comments that it is unfair to publish children's details in adoption magazines while parents are stopped from talking about cases.

Under existing legislation, journalists are not allowed into family courts in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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