Child law, often referred to as family law related to children, is a legal area that deals with issues involving minors (individuals under the age of 18) and their rights, responsibilities, and well-being within a family context. Here’s a simplified explanation:

Child law includes:

1. Custody and Visitation: Determining who a child will live with (custody) and when they will spend time with the other parent (visitation).
2. Child Support: Ensuring that both parents financially support their child, including expenses like education, healthcare, and everyday living costs.
3. Child Protection: Protecting children from neglect or abuse and, if necessary, placing them in a safe environment.
4. Adoption: The legal process of creating a new parent-child relationship between a child and an adoptive parent.
5. Guardianship: Appointing a legal guardian to care for a child when the parents cannot do so, often due to incapacity or other reasons.
6. Paternity: Establishing the legal father of a child, which can impact rights and responsibilities, including child support and visitation.
7. Emancipation: The process through which a minor becomes legally independent of their parents, often due to achieving a certain age or circumstances.
8. Education Rights: Ensuring that children have access to a proper education, including issues related to special needs and schooling.

If you and your partner have decided to file for divorce or dissolution and you have children, it’s essential to gain advice from a specialist child law solicitor at the earliest opportunity. We will always prioritise the needs of your children within a dispute. Starting from your first appointment and continuing throughout the divorce process, we will provide strategic advice and on-going support to ensure that they are receiving adequate care and their health and safety is not at risk.

What happens if we cannot reach agreement about the children?

The Courts will not normally get involved with the arrangements for the children and only do so where there is an issue relating to the protection of your children or if the parents are unable to reach agreement on an important aspect of their child’s upbringing. If this is the case, the Court will always act in the children’s best interests. Your dedicated child law solicitor will be able to provide guidance and representation through this process in order to ensure your specific needs are taken into account.

If you and your partner cannot reach an agreement regarding your children through mediation, the court will issue an order that establishes their living arrangements post-divorce. The most common court orders in child law cases are:

• Child Arrangement Orders
• Child Arrangement Orders are issued when the court reaches a decision regarding where your child will live, when your child spends time with either parent and what kind of contact e.g. phone calls, are allowed to take place with the parent who is not caring for the child.
• Specific Issue Orders
• Specific Issue Orders can be used if you have specific requirements regarding the child’s upbringing, such as which school they go to or what religious education they receive.
• Prohibited Steps Orders
• A Prohibited Steps order can be put in place to stop the other parent from making decisions regarding the child’s upbringing without consultation.

Parental Responsibility means the legal rights, duties, and authority a parent has over their child’s upbringing. Important decisions about the child’s life need agreement from all parties with parental responsibility. Usually, the birth mother automatically has parental responsibility. If the father wasn’t married to the mother when the child was born, they don’t automatically have it unless their name is on the child’s birth certificate. If you want parental responsibility, for instance, if you’ve been acting as a child’s father and are now married to the mother, you can apply through the courts. Our child solicitors can help answer all of your questions about this process.

If your partner takes your child out of the country without your permission, it’s considered a serious crime, like child abduction. Contact the police right away. They might issue a court order called a Port Alert to stop your partner from leaving with your child. If you think your child is already abroad, reach out to our child law experts. This is a complicated legal issue, but we’ll do everything needed to keep your child safe.