What sort of hearing is it?+

The letter you received from the Court telling you about the date of your hearing will also tell you what sort of hearing this is - if you need any help finding this information, you can make an appointment at ARU Law Clinic. It could be one of the following:

FHDRA – First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment+

This is the first hearing that will happen once an application for a child arrangements order has been received by the Court. At the FHDRA, the Court will consider the safeguarding information and will try to encourage the parties to resolve the matter by agreement.

• If the safeguarding information (which should have been prepared by a CAFCASS officer) is not available, the Court might postpone the FHDRA until that information is available

• If everything can be agreed, the Court might make a final order and the case will end

• The Court will listen to both parties but will not hear any evidence and, if things cannot be completely resolved, will normally give Directions to progress the case or get the case ready for a fuller hearing

• The Court may make an interim order (which just lasts until the next hearing) about the children at this stage.

• The Court can ask you both to go to a MIAM if you have not already done so.

• The Court might order CAFCASS to prepare a Section 7 report to be carried out. This is ordered when the Court wants more information about a child’s welfare, what is best for the child and sometimes, where there are certain risk factors or concerns raised in relation to a child, parent or other relative. This usually takes about 12 weeks to prepare and the Court will ask you to come back to Court a couple of weeks after the report is finished.

The person preparing the report may speak to the child (depending on their age and understanding) about their wishes and feelings and what they would like to happen. They will also spend time with both parties and listen to any concerns they may have. They may also speak to other people such as family members, teachers and health workers. They will not ask the child to make a decision or to choose between either parent.

• If a question arises about the welfare of the child, and it seems to the Court that they might need to make a Care Order or a Supervision Order, then it will ask Children’s Services (the local authority) to investigate the child’s circumstances and report to the Court on its findings. This is called a Section 37 report. If there are factual disputes that are important to the decision the Court has to make about the children (for example, domestic abuse allegations that are denied) the Court might decide to deal with those first and ask both parties to prepare written statements about the allegations in advance of a FACT FINDING HEARING.

After a fact finding hearing, the Court can consider whether it needs a report from CAFCASS, based upon what the judge has decided did or did not happen.

If a CAFCASS report is necessary, the report will be presented to the Court.

Fact finding hearing+

If this is necessary, usually both parties will give evidence, so this hearing might take longer, perhaps half a day or a day, but the Court will have let you know about this before the hearing date.

Dispute resolution appointment+

Once the Court has decided on what happened in the past at any Fact Finding Hearing and everyone has received any recommendations from CAFCASS, you will be called back to see if the matter can be agreed and the case will end. If the case can be agreed, a final order is likely to be made. If the case cannot be agreed, it will probably be listed for a final hearing, with time for you to give evidence. The Court might ask you to put your case in writing in the form of a witness statement.

Final Hearing+

The person who made the initial application to the Court (the applicant) has to prepare a BUNDLE for use by all sides and the judge at Court. This is basically all the papers and statements in the case set out in an organised way. If there are no lawyers involved in the case, the Court may prepare the bundle. Other documents that the Court normally requires are an up-to-date summary, a position statement (setting out what you want) and a simple chronology or timeline of what has happened.

This is a form of trial where both parties give evidence and will be able to challenge the parts of the other person’s evidence they don’t agree with by asking them questions. The judge will listen and come to a decision. ORDER(S) are then made telling the parties what they can and cannot do. This should normally be the end of the matter but you may have to return to Court to seek enforcement of an Order if the other party is not abiding by it or if the order needs to be changed and you cannot agree it.