Family courts pioneer shared parenting orders

Published:  The Guardian | 09 February 2012

According to Jonathan West, Head of family and matrimonial, ‘Judges and lawyers are already anticipating the government’s proposed reforms to the status of separated parents by pioneering ‘shared residence orders’.

Jonathan says that ‘shared residence orders’, under which children are looked after by both parents are becoming increasingly common.

Earlier this week the government said that both parents should be entitled to the ‘presumption of shared parenting’ which is to be legally binding after the separation. A ministerial group will account back in two months on what order of words will be included into legislation to ensure children maintain a ‘meaningful relationship’ with both mother and father.

However, Jonathan West says the government was ‘trying to make something out of nothing’ and only inserting ‘a nuance’ into established law. He further says that in some cases already ‘a shared residence order is nowadays the rule rather than the exception, even where the (amount) of care undertaken by each parent is decidedly unequal. The government seems to be following the judges rather than leading them’

He then also adds that Grandparents are often the bigger issue, ‘We see a lot of grandparents who are denied contact’.

Some say that Downing Street are just eager to demonstrate that the government are responsive to claims by fathers’ groups who campaign more fair treatment in family court disputes. The challenge will be with the government drafters to insert a clause indicating that both parents should, in most cases, have a shared responsibility for bringing up children after separation.- ‘without creating a right that will trigger an avalanche of claims based on the new text’.

A real life case which is in agreement of the new initiative concludes the article. In this case the children are currently living with their father and whilst at the time of the separation the mother was ‘unfit’ to have her children full time, she now feels that she should have better access to her children. The situation after six years has not been resolved and thus the mother is all for, for a better system in place to grant better access to her children.

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