[Solved] Private Law Children Applications - Statistics

Hi there

So you've been around for the last year and haven't posted until today! I'm glad that you've gained a lot from your visits here, we have many members that use the forum for information and get a great deal of emotional support, just by reading others experiences.

I'm not aware of any statistics on shared care arrangements, but to be honest I haven't looked. I do know that courts are slowly coming round to this type of arrangement, but as with all things family law, change happens very slowly.

My advice,to anyone seeking this type of order, would usually be to go for it... Certain circumstances might go against an order of this nature being granted., but equally if the parents live relatively close and can work together, the chances of it happening are more favourable.

All the best

At the risk of being pedantic, these days the courts no longer call them "shared residence orders". In my CAO application, I had to ask for "the child to live with both of us".

... if the parents live relatively close and can work together, the chances of it happening are more favourable

I've heard the point about the parents working together being a condition for a shared residence order being issued, and I honestly hope that's not the case, otherwise I'd have no chance whatsoever.

There seems to be some case law to suggest that if the parents can work together, an order wouldn't be necessary in the first place. And that if one of the parents is actively marginalizing the other parent, that can be a justification for issuing a shared residence order.

although therefore an inability of parents to work in harmony does not, by itself, amount to a reason for making a shared residence order, a possible consequence of their inability to do so, namely the deliberate and sustained marginalisation of one parent by the other, may sometimes do so.

http://www.33bedfordrow.co.uk/Legal-Articles/understanding-shared-residence.html

... A lot depends on the judge making the order to be honest, and either circumstance can apply.

There is case law that backs your position, one of hostility between parents motivating a judge to make a shared care arrangement. Alternatively, some judges consider that the 2014 family law reform and the introduction of CAOs meant that residence and contact and shared residence were no longer pertinent...although I don't agree with that and I have had experience of shared care being ordered with parents that are hostile and those that are not so.

In your searches for info have you come across The Custody Minedield? Here's a link just in case you haven't

http://www.thecustodyminefield.com/flapp/sharedlivingarrangements.html

Please don't think you don't have a chance, it's impossible to predict the mindset of a particular judge, that's why I usually say, go for it.

Thanks Mojo, I did come across the custody minefield, very useful resource.

Agreed, dads are only guaranteed to not get it if we don't ask for it in the first place. I've also read somewhere that judges often feel the reason they don't give more to dads is because dads don't ask for it, and that motivated me to go for it.

The other thing that motivates me, is that sometimes this process feels like trying to break down a brick wall with your bare hands. As a society, we need to continue moving towards an awareness of how this whole process bankrupts families and damages children's relationships with part of their extended family. Any dent I can make, I'll go for, I don't want my son to ever have to go through this.

And on the original topic of private family law statistics, the only thing I could find does not include data on outcomes:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly

Although it doesn't give an answer to your question, it is interesting reading all the same.

To quote one of the paragraph's, "So, in England & Wales alone, over 4,300,000 children have, between 1971 and 2014, had their futures sealed in this most arbitrary of ways (100,000 x 43 years)".

Thank you for your replies.

Mojo, i know it might appear odd that I have been intermittently accessing this helpful forum and only posting for the first time a whole year later! I guess I felt that unless I have something to positively contribute or add or request as I just have then I would just digest the incredible wealth of information here.

Once proceedings are over I shall provide a detailed overview of my journey and its result along with all the issues encountered and overcome, in the hope that it may assist a struggling father somewhere out there, the way other people's stories and experiences have assisted me in times of need.

Blessings to all dads...x

Hi Chapter

Don't worry about infrequent posts, we don't keep count 🙂 It's more important that we can provide help, so it's nice to hear that we have been able to do that for you, but an account at the end would be a great help to other dads.