All child arrangements and domestic abuse applications must now be submitted online at family courts in Kingston upon Hull, Grimsby, Swansea, Wolverhampton and Chelmsford.
All C100 applications must be filed through the MyHMCTS Private Family Law digital service, unless an exception applies under practice direction 36ZD. Any paper C100 applications submitted from yesterday (Sunday) will be rejected and returned. The mandate also applies to FL401 (Family Law Act 1996 non-molestation and occupation order applications, however these will be assessed by the courts on a case-by-case basis.
The changes are part of practice direction 36ZD (PD36ZD), which requires legally represented parties to submit and manage proceedings through MyHMCTS. The mandation has applied to legally represented parties starting proceedings on or after 24th November 2025 at courts where the system is available; from 1st March paper filing is formally blocked at the five courts.
The online route may be bypassed where MyHMCTS is unavailable due to planned or unplanned downtime, or where an application must be made out of hours through the High Court’s urgent business officer or the family court’s urgent business scheme. Outside those circumstances, a legally represented party at one of the five courts has no discretion to file by paper.
Unrepresented parties are not subject to the mandate and may continue using the paper process or the Ministry of Justice online system under Practice Direction 36G.
Solicitors with active or incoming cases at any of the five courts must be registered as an organisation on MyHMCTS. Every fee earner issuing proceedings must hold an individual portal account, and the firm’s internal workflows must reflect the platform’s document upload and service processes. Barristers instructed on a case must also be individually registered on MyHMCTS before they can be added to the case record.
Cases proceeding through MyHMCTS are served through the system, with the portal generating links through which parties can download filed documents rather than receiving hard copies.
The five courts are part of what HMCTS says will be a staged national rollout. Firms are advised to enrol on MyHMCTS if they have not yet done so.
