Child Arrangements Order

If you are having difficulty seeing your child or you are worried that your former partner will not return your child to you after contact, you can seek the help of the court by applying for a Child Arrangement Order (CAO). Before you can apply, in most cases, you will need to have gone to family mediation and undergone a MIAM. A CAO can contain lots of different provisions such a “live with” order, “time with” order, prohibited steps order or specific issue order depending on your own unique circumstances. For further information read our “Guide to Issues Relating to Children”.

The court procedure can vary greatly from case to case depending on complexity and the issues that arise and because of this we charge for such applications on hourly rate charging. We recommend that everyone attends an Initial Meeting with one of our Specialist Consultants, so that we can gather information about your circumstances and advise you, on the most appropriate way forward.

At your initial meeting, we will aim to provide you with a clear estimate of our charges, having considered your circumstances. Our estimates are based on the information you provide and our many years of experience. However, we can only provide an estimate and your actual charges may differ depending entirely on the amount of time spent on your case.

After your initial meeting and once you are ready to proceed, we will ask you to provide the sum of £1500.00 on account of costs, this will cover the court fee (if one is payable) and provide money towards the work required to get your court application underway promptly.