Parental Responsibility is something that causes people a lot of confusion. Many people believe the right to be a parent is something to be earned that could be taken away if a person doesn’t act as a parent should. Find out what the law thinks.
If you mention or have researched making an application to the family court you may well have been told “you have to go to mediation before you can go to court, its mandatory”. In actual fact the requirement is not to have attended mediation, this is a common fallacy, the requirement is only to have attended a special type of meeting called a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM). Find out more about the mediation requirement here.
If you have a dispute about something that should happen to a child, such as which school they should attend, their religion, whether they should go on holiday, or who should hold their passport, you may need a Specific Issue Order. Our Essential Guide to Specific Issue Orders should be the starting point for anyone wanting to better understand this type of court order
Parenting is always a challenge but is made all the more so when you’re not in a relationship with the other parent. You can apply to the family court to decide where a child should live, what their relationship with their other parent looks like, and even to help make decisions you don’t agree on, but if you need to point-blank to stop the other parent from doing something you need a Prohibited Step Order.
Information about the mandatory mediation requirement for applications for Child Arrangements and related orders is spread out and often difficult to put together, meaning people are left with questions about the process and what they need to do. Our Ultimate Guide to Family Mediation hopes to address this.
Our Ultimate Guide to Child Arrangement Orders should be the starting point for anyone wanting to better understand this type of court order