H-M (Children) [2021] EWCA Civ 748

The Court of Appeal dismissed the mother’s second appeal relating to a fact-finding hearing. The criminal proceedings and the family proceedings had reached incongruent outcomes, in that the mother was in the family court’s pool of perpetrators but was exonerated of causing injury in the criminal court. Jackson LJ’s judgment upheld the lower court’s decision to refuse her application to reopen, and also helpfully sets out some differences between a reopening and an appeal of a fact find, as well as the proper approach when criminal and family court outcomes are incongruent.