Practice Guidance on Standard Children and other Orders
Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division has issued Practice Guidance relating to and for the use of standard children and other orders. It is for general use.
It follows previous guidance issued by the President, including the second batch of Standard Family Orders: [2018] Fam Law 371 issues for consultation in March 2018. That included, (as Orders 7.2 and 8.2), detailed precedents setting out case management orders for private and public law cases.
The responses to the consultation have been taken on board when finalising the latest drafts.
Comprehensive Menu
The purpose of the original format of Orders 7.2 and 8.2 was to provide a comprehensive menu from which the appropriate orders and directions could be easily selected and used in shorter form template orders. In an attempt to curb the unwieldy nature of the draft orders, both Order 7.2 and 8.2 are now set out as libraries of precedents rather than order templates. They include hyperlinked tables of contents for easier selection of the relevant paragraphs. The idea being that the clauses as required, be used to supplement and/or change the shorter form template orders referred to below.
Shorter Form Orders
A number of shorter form Public and Private Law Case Management Directions Orders (Orders 7.3-7.6 and 8.3-8.5 respectively) have been provided to cover the most frequently arising situations. The idea is that they reflect the idea of Order 1.2 – the shorter version of the Financial Directions Order. As was previously outlined by Sir Munby (in the context of the financial orders), he expects that practitioners will soon build up their own library of precedents for use in subsequent matters.
Litigants in Person
Order 7.7 is a summary private law order for litigants in person. It is designed to give a simplified summary of the issues to be considered at the next hearing and what they must do to get ready for it. It may either be used as a free-standing order or as an attachment to a template order.
Local Practice
Any temptation to adopt ‘local practice’ for wording is specifically directed to end. From now on, orders as drawn and sealed by the court should contain only the applicable paragraphs, and there should be no trace of any struck through or other unused text.
Status
The orders do not have the strict status of forms within Part 5 of the FPR 2010 and their use is not mandatory. A ‘standard’ order may be altered by the court or a party if the alteration is necessary in the circumstances of the individual matter. The standard form of orders is the starting point but the President also expects them to also be the finishing point of the drafting exercise in most cases.
For the full Guidance and a link to the zip file of orders visit: https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/practice-guidance-standard-children-and-other-orders/
For the zip file only, click here.
Contact
If you would like more details on this or want to discuss your family law matter, please do not hesitate to contact James, Frank or Evelyn. Paradigm Family Law offers a free initial consultation and our fixed fee solutions cover financial proceedings from start to finish. You can call us on 01904 217225 or email us to [email protected].
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