Children Law – New Court Rules and Forms /Reform Family Services offered by courts
- giving non-resident parent’s relationship with a child the importance that it has in practice in the lives of many children;
- the emphasis placed on the relationship between the child and relatives in the wider family;
- speeding up procedures to identify issues of child safety and making them more effective;
- making proceedings less adversarial and more about seeking settlement – an adversarial approach often inflames the acrimony that often exists between separating couples, making things worse rather than better;
- alleviating the feeling of some parents that contact with children was allowed by the court in a way that put their or their children’s safety or well-being at risk;
- treating resolution as an ongoing process at which parents needed to work over the long term rather than as a one-off event that ended with the court’s decision;
- giving the court enhanced powers to enforce orders for contact, avoiding the need for cases to go back to court repeatedly and increasing the likelihood of cooperation.
- introduce timetables to deal with cases involving children so that proceedings are not delayed more than absolutely necessary;
- provide better arrangements for the children of separating or divorcing parents;
- keep parents who are separating or divorcing properly informed of the alternatives open to them and, indeed, helping both parents to help their children;
- ensure that parents are treated equally in respect of the children and that both parents accept responsibility for their children;
- minimise animosity among parents;
- give grandparents rights (including situations where the child is “in care”);
- overhaul the powers to protect children from abuse or neglect;
- provide a more modern, framework for ensuring financial support for a child.
Published May 1, 2013
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