Guidance

Urgent hearings about child arrangements (CB2)

Updated 29 April 2024

Before applying to court

Before making an application to court for an order concerning your child or children, you must first go to a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM). This meeting will not hold up your application for too long, as it should be held within 15 business days of you contacting a mediator.

You can find a mediator in your area through the family mediation council.

However, in some limited circumstances you may not have to go to a MIAM before making an application. For example, if you can show that your application is urgent, or you have evidence of domestic abuse.

Find more information about the circumstances in which the MIAM requirement does not apply.

If your case is urgent

You do not have to go to a MIAM if your case is urgent. However, you must be able to show one of the following.

There is a risk to:

• your life, freedom or physical safety
• the life, freedom or physical safety of a member of your family or your home

Or any delay caused by going to a MIAM would mean:

• there is a risk to your life, freedom or physical safety or your family or home
• a risk of harm to a child
• a risk that a child would be unlawfully taken from the UK, or a risk that a child who is currently outside England and Wales will be unlawfully held
• a significant risk that there will be a miscarriage of justice
• you would suffer significant financial hardship
• irretrievable problems in dealing with the dispute – including the irretrievable loss of significant evidence
• that in the period needed to arrange and go to a MIAM, proceedings relating to the dispute will be brought in another country (or state), and a court in that other country would be able to hear the dispute and make decisions before a court in England and Wales could

If any of the circumstances mentioned apply to you, tick ‘Yes’ to question 2c in section 2 of the C100 form, and tick all the relevant boxes in section 3.

If the exemption you are claiming requires evidence, you must provide this with your application.

You must then give the form to staff at the court, who will ask a judge or magistrate to decide when a court hearing about your application should take place.

Find more information about what to expect in court in the guide for separated parents: children and the family courts (CB7).

Giving notice to the other person

When you want an order urgently you should tell the other parent or person with whom the dispute has arisen (the respondent) that you are making an application. You can do this informally by:

• writing to them
• phoning them
• texting them
• emailing them

Only in exceptional cases will the court hear an urgent application without notice being given to the other person. Hearings without notice will generally only be held if you can show that giving notice to the other person would:

• allow them to take steps which would defeat the purpose of your application
• mean you or the child (or children) would not be safe
• mean there is some other exceptional urgency and there is no time for you to give notice

It is almost always possible to give at least informal notice in one of the ways mentioned.

Making an urgent application without notice

If you make an urgent application without notice, you must give the judge or magistrates as much information about the case as you can.

You must tell the judge or magistrates about your concerns that have caused you to make this application. You must also tell them about everything you think the other person would say in reply if they were at court. You can complete this in section 4b of the C100 form.

The court will generally only make an order without notice if you have provided a full, signed account of the evidence on which you are relying and confirmed it to be true. You can complete this in sections 6a and 6b of the C100 form.

If you want to provide more information, you can do so in a written statement. This should also contain a declaration of truth which you must sign. Ideally any further statement should be typed (though it does not have to be). In your written statement you must:

• set out a little of the background to the application
• explain why you need an order as an emergency
• describe the nature of the order you want

Bringing children with you to court

Children should not generally come to court unless they are part of the court process. For example, if they are a witness, or if you have an appointment for you and your child to meet with the judge.

If you must bring your child for any other reason, please bring an adult friend or family member to look after them while you are in the hearing room. Court staff cannot look after your child.