Children and the family courts
Page 3 of 11
What a court might decide
A court might:
- make an order
However, a court will only make an order if it thinks that would be best for the child, and sometimes a court may decide that it would be best not to make any order. Some of the orders which a court might make are given in page 7 of this guidance. The booklets and leaflets give in page 2 will tell you about these and other orders.
- change an order (called varying the order).
- end an order (called discharging or terminating the order).
Once a case has started a court may make other decisions
These include:
- giving directions.
These are instructions which people must follow.
- transferring a case to another court.
Parental Responsibility Agreements
The Principal Registry of the Family Division registers Parental Responsibility Agreements. There is more about Agreements on page 8 of this guidance.
About Appeals
If you do not agree with a court's decision you may be allowed to ask the same court, or another court, to look at the decision again. But that will depend on several things: for instance, the order and the type of court.