What happens in a Children’s Act Application?

The Court has an overriding principle of non-intervention when dealing with children. This means that a Court will only make an order if it thinks making an order is better for the child involved than not making one. The most important person within Children Act Proceedings is the child. The Court also will consider that parents generally are the best people to reach agreements about their children as, in the long term, these are the people whoa re going to have to make any orders made work.

This means that throughout any Children Act case an underlying presumption is that the parties should be able to reach a solution.

Within a divorce the Court will not make any orders relating to a child.

There are 4 basic orders a Court can make within s8 Children’s Act Proceedings (the usual private law Children Act cases) namely:
Residence who the child lives with
Contact arrangements for the child to spend time with a person
Specific issue determining single disputes between parents (such as which school a child attends)
Prohibited steps preventing a person from doing something with a child (such as removing a child from somewhere)

Step 1
Preparing Papers

An application is made by completing a standard forms setting out basic information including who the Applicant is, who the child is, who the parents are, the orders being applied for and why. If you are the Applicant these will be completed and sent to you for approval.

Step 2
Issuing Application

Once you have approved the forms these are sent in duplicate to the Court with the appropriate Court fee for issuing, The Court will issue the papers, return them with a Notice of First Appointment to me for me to served on the other party(ies) (the Respondent). I must then send the papers out to the Respondent and complete a Statement of Service, which is filed at Court as evidence that this has been done. They must be given at least 14 days notice of the hearing in most cases.

Step 3
First Directions Appointment

At the first appointment you and the Respondent will be invited to meet together with a CAFASS officer (Court & Family Assistance & Support Service) to see if there is any way matters can be resolved between you both or to narrow down the areas of dispute. Any agreement reached is usually recorded and they will prepare a short report for the judge.

Following the meeting with the CAFCASS officer there will be a short appointment before a District Judge. They will set out a timetable as to how maters will progress.

If agreements have been reached it is often necessary to have these reviewed after 3 or 4 months to see how things are working and in which case the Judge will simply fix a review date. This reviewing of progress can be repeated until either you are both able to deal with issue between yourselves or if matters are not progressing as everyone had expected the Court timetables the matter for a final hearing.

If this has not been possible to reach an agreement then the Judge will timetable the gather of further evidence including the filing of written statements, and the filing of a CAFCASS report. They will also fix a review hearing once all this evidence is in to see what additional work needs to be done.

Step 4
Preparing Statements

This is your opportunity to set out either why you are applying for the orders or why you are opposing them. These are then filed at Court and served on the other party in accordance with the timetable set by the Court.

Step 5
Court & Family Advisor Report

The CAFCASS officer is in effect the “eyes & ears of the Court”. They will meet you, the children, and the other party; make enquiries of the schools, Social Services or any other body they feel is relevant. They can require you to attend their officer or they may want to see you at home. They may want to do both. They may want to see the children with both parents and on their own. Their role is to provide the Court with an independent overview and make recommendations about the orders the Court can make and why. Their report is very important to the judge making the final Orders.

Step 6
Final Directions Hearing

Once all the evidence has been gathered and both parties have the opportunity of consider the same the Court will list a pre-hearing review to check that everything is in place, that in the light of any report filed further information is not required and check that the time estimate for a final hearing. If, at this stage Orders have been agreed the Judge can make final Order by consent.

Step 7
Final Hearing

At the final hearing each party will give oral evidence to the Court. Each of you will be asked questions by their legal representative, by the other party’s legal representative and possibly even by the Judge. The CAFCASS officer who prepared the report may also been asked to attend and questioned by both sides. After hearing all the evidence the Judge will then decide and make the orders they feel are necessary and explain how they came to that decision.

Timescales

It is difficult to give clear indications as to how long matters will take as you will appreciate there are a number of variables.

From issuing the Application to First Appointment is usually around 4 – 6 weeks.
A CAFCASS report if order usually takes between 12 – 20 weeks to be available.
Usually a pre-hearing review is listed 2 weeks after the CAFCASS report has been Order to be filed
The time before a final hearing will depend on anticipated length the final hearing will be and the Court and Judge availability.

Costs

Costs are calculated on time spend on a matter and as a result it is very difficult to even guesstimate what these might be from the outset. However to help keep track of costs bills will be prepared every 3 months or after each key stage to keep you informed.