A pilot scheme that introduced a procedure for using an online system to generate applications in certain private law proceedings relating to children, has been extended until the 27th January 2020.
Originally set to run until the 28th January 2019, the Practice Direction 36G of the Family Procedure Rules has been extended by a year.
Set up to “assess the use of new practices and procedures to allow for certain applications for Section 8 Orders to be generated via the online system.”
Although the application can be made online, during the pilot, the applicant will still
“…need to save or print that application, which will then need to be filed at court in accordance with the procedure currently provided for in the FPR and Practice Directions.
“It is intended that future Practice Directions will establish other Pilot Schemes which will allow for later stages in applications for section 8 orders to be completed via the online system, for example making the application online.”
Section 8 Orders allow the court to order ‘child arrangement orders’ relating to whom the child is to spend time with and when the child is to live or spend time with any person to whom the application relates. It also allows for a ‘prohibited steps order’ which presents a parent is stopped from taking any steps to meet his parental responsibility without consent of the court.
