Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, head of the family division, refused a mother the right to appeal against a judge's determination that she had been responsible for suffocating four children.
Her lawyers had argued that the balance of proof had not been applied correctly, but Butler-Sloss ruled that family courts should use the same standard of proof as the civil courts.
The case follows concerns that family courts were on the way to applying the criminal courts' more stringent standard of proof, beyond all reasonable doubt.
It followed a judgment by Mr Justice Bodey in the High Court last year, when parents were suspected of causing a baby serious injuries (Analysis, 21-27 January).
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