Orders in relation to Children

If you are considering a divorce, dissolving a civil partnership or separation from your partner your primary concern will probably be whom your children should live with, how or where they should be brought up, or about how arrangements for contact should be managed.

We understand that, as a parent, you will want to resolve matters relating to your children as soon as possible and in their best interests.

Our family solicitors deal with parental responsibility, residence and contact disputes on a daily basis and we can deal with any issue in respect of the upbringing of children.

In the event of a disagreement, expert legal advice can be invaluable and we can help you through this by:

  • putting you in touch with family mediators;
  • negotiating with your partner's solicitors; or
  • advising whether you should start Court proceedings.

Only once we have exhausted all of the alternative routes we will then involve the Court.

There are four different Orders under Section 8 of the Children Act 1989 that the Court can make in relation to a child’s upbringing, these are:

Residence Order

is an order setting out the arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is to live. A Residence Order can be made in favour of two or more persons who live in different households or it can be made in favour of non-parents, therefore a Residence Order can be flexible to your specific needs. In addition, once a Residence Order is implemented, no person can change the surname of the child or remove them from the UK without the permission of the Court or consent from every person who has parental responsibility of that child.

Contact Order

is an Order requiring the person with whom the child lives, or is to live, to allow the child to visit or stay with the person named in the Order or for that person and the child otherwise to have contact with each other. This contact can be physical, by letter, e-mail or by telephone.

Prohibited Steps Order

deals with a specific problem and prevents a person with parental responsibility taking a step without the consent of the Court, for example it could be used to prevent a grandparent with whom the child lived removing the child from the jurisdiction.

Specific Issue Order

is an Order giving directions for the purpose of determining a specific question which has arisen or which may arise in connection with any aspect of parental responsibility for a child, for example, the Order could decide which school a child should attend, whether a child should have particular medical treatment or the religion a child should adopt.

We will discuss which of these is the best solution for your individual circumstances.