Child Maintenance and Support Solicitors in London

How our children solicitors can help

Our family and child care lawyers can answer all your children law questions, including:

• Applying for a child arrangement order so your child lives with you or so you can have contact or shared care
• Stopping contact between a child and their father or mother
• Changing a child arrangement order
• Resolving parent disputes and applying for specific issue orders or prohibited steps orders
• Parenting plans for separated parents
• Alienating behaviour parental contact disputes
• Domestic abuse, injunction orders and child contact
• Domestic violence allegations and fact-finding hearings
• Holiday contact orders so you can take your child overseas on holiday or stop a holiday
• Relocation orders if you or the other parent wants to move overseas with your child and the other parent objects
• Parental child abduction advice
• Enforcing contact orders
• Maintenance and child support
• Step parent rights and contact
• Grandparents’ rights
• Parental responsibility agreements and applications
• Changing a child’s surname
• Special guardianship orders
• Legal support during child mediation
• Immigration status and child custody, contact and relocation

Child arrangements after divorce

If you cannot agree on the arrangements for your children after your separation or divorce either you or your ex-partner can apply to court for a child arrangement order. When the judge decides an application for custody, contact or a child welfare-related question, the child’s welfare is the paramount consideration.

Our child care solicitors can help you agree the parenting arrangements with your former partner so you do not need to go to court for a child arrangement order. We can also provide specialist child law legal advice during family mediation. Our specialist lawyers understand the importance to you and your family of reaching amicable childcare arrangements that meet the needs of your family.

Child care arrangement disputes

If you cannot agree the child custody, shared care, contact or other child welfare issues with your child’s parent then you or they can apply to court for an order, such as a child arrangement order, specific issue order or prohibited steps order.

The court encourages parents to reach an agreement through direct discussions, solicitor negotiations or family mediation. Reaching an agreement is not always possible. You may need to apply to court or respond to an application started by your partner.

Our expert family law solicitors will advise you on the court process and the range of orders the court has the power to make. Our advice focuses on trying to resolve the dispute. If reaching an agreement is impossible, we provide you with the specialist legal advice needed to make the court process as stress-free as possible.

The role of mediation in child care arrangement disputes

If you cannot agree on the parenting arrangements for your children, you normally need to attend a family mediation meeting (called a MIAM) before a court application can be made. The MIAM is to see if you should try and reach an agreement using mediation or another non-court-based resolution option. If mediation works for you then a court application may be unnecessary.

If children law court proceedings have been started the court can adjourn the proceedings for family mediation to take place if the judge thinks that a trained mediator may help you resolve the child arrangement dispute.

There are situations where couples are exempt from attending family mediation. For example, if there has been a history of violence there are immediate safeguarding issues.

Mediation is an effective process, allowing many couples to work out arrangements for their children between themselves, without the stress and expense of having to go to court. However, it can be a worry going into mediation without knowing your rights or the likely order a court would make if you applied for a child arrangement order. Our child arrangement solicitors can support you inbetween mediation sessions so you have the confidence to negotiate in mediation to secure childcare arrangements that meet your child’s needs.

Frequently Asked Questions on Childcare Arrangements

What is a child arrangement order?

A child arrangement order sets out the parenting arrangements for a child. The order may say that the child is parented in a shared parenting regime or lives with their mother and has overnight, weekend, mid-week or other contact with their father. Extended family members can ask the court to make a child arrangement order in their favour. For example, a grandparent or a step-parent who wants to maintain a relationship after a divorce.

How much does a child arrangement order cost in the UK?

The cost of a child arrangement order depends on whether the order is agreed or the complexity of the issues and allegations and the number of court hearings. Our friendly team of family lawyers can give you an idea of likely costs and timescales when we have some information about why you need a child arrangement order.

Is a child arrangement order legally binding?

A child arrangement order is legally binding. A parent can apply to the court to enforce the order if it is not followed. Child contact solicitors can apply back to the court that made the child arrangement order. The solicitor can ask the court to change the order if the original order no longer meets the contact or welfare needs of the child.

Do you get financial help with a child arrangement order?

If your child lives with you, or the court orders that your child should live with you under a child arrangement order, you can ask the other parent to pay child support. If the other parent will not pay child maintenance a child solicitor can ask the Child Maintenance Service to carry out an assessment. If care is shared the other parent may not be liable to pay child support under the rules.

Do I need a solicitor for child arrangements?

You can sort out parenting arrangements directly with your former partner. However, most parents find it helpful to understand their legal rights with advice from child arrangement order solicitors.

Our approach to child arrangement matters

Our family and child law solicitors believe in cases of parental separation and divorce, your child’s welfare is paramount. By providing sensitive but firm advice our child care solicitors help estranged couples find an amicable child arrangement solution that is in the best interests of their children.

With empathetic advice from our child arrangement solicitors, we will help negotiate arrangements that meet the needs of the children and provide parents with the means to adjust to their new situation, without undue stress. Normally we achieve this through negotiation or legal support during family mediation. If parents cannot reach an agreement through mediation (or should not due to factors such as domestic violence) then they may need court representation.

Whether you are trusting our child law solicitors to assist you with working out arrangements for the care of your children or in representing you in a child arrangement order application we take our responsibility to your family very seriously. By approaching every family separation and parenting dispute case in a bespoke manner, we ensure every family who seeks advice from a child lawyer at OTS Solicitors feels fully supported throughout their separation and in their journey to securing agreed or court ordered parenting arrangements.

Get in touch with our children law solicitors in London

We provide child law advice from our offices in London, over the phone or online via Web Conferencing such as Zoom or Skype. For expert legal advice, contact our child law solicitors in London.