Applying for a Section 8 Order
This page is about applying for a child arrangements order (live with and/or spend time with) or a prohibited steps or specific issues order.
Who can apply for a child arrangements, specific issues, or prohibited steps order?
The following people can apply:
Mothers
Fathers, even if they don’t have parental responsibility
Second female parents, even if they don’t have parental responsibility
If you are not in one of these categories read our page on applying if you are not a parent.
How do I apply?
There are some useful guides on this:
The Advice Now guide on what to do before you apply to court for child arrangements
The Advice Now guide on going to court when your ex has a lawyer and you don’t
Step 1: The MIAM
Before you apply, you will need to attend a MIAM unless you are exempt. See our Reaching Agreement page. The person conducting the MIAM will give you a form or code to allow you to go to court. If you are exempt, you will need to provide evidence of exemption.
Step 2: Complete the forms
You then need to fill in form C100. You can fill this in online or you can fill in the paper form.
It’s quite a long form but it is not very difficult. It just asks for lots of information about the family. The documents we’ve linked to above help you do it.
If you are alleging that there is domestic abuse or harm to your child (including a risk of international abduction), then it’s a good idea to also complete Form C1A Supplemental Information Form to give more information about this. If you are applying online then this is all part of then online application.
If you are doing a paper form and want to hide your address from your ex, you also send the court form C8. This is a confidential form the court keeps. If you are applying online it is all part of the online application.
So that is:
Form C100
Potentially form C1A
Potentially form C8
You need to send three identical copies of your application forms to court with the fee, or pay by credit card if you are applying online. More information about fees and when you don’t have to pay a fee are on our court fees page.
Applications in existing proceedings
If you want to make an application in while there are already child arrangements proceedings actively happening then you need form C2. You can’t use this application form if your proceedings are over, even if they were only over recently.
Applying for parental responsibility at the same time
You will need Form C1 as well as a form C100. It’s probably a good idea to use the paper forms as you will need to send the papers to the other party once they’ve been issued by the court. The court does not do this itself for C1 forms.
Step 3: Filing and serving the application
You will need to send the application to the family court nearest where the child lives. You can search for that by postcode. This is called ‘filing an application’.
If you’ve done the online form this is all done by pressing the submit button.
Once the court has received your application, it check you have completed everything correctly.
If so, it will schedule a hearing. This is called a ‘Directions appointment’ or FHDRA . It is about what information is needed to decide the case. The court won’t make a final decision at this time except very rarely.
The court will send the application form and the court documents to your ex.
The court will also send your application to Cafcass. Cafcass will check with you, the police, and the local authority to see if there is any history of domestic abuse, harm, or crimes. They send this information in a safeguarding letter to the court. The purpose of the letter is to alert the court to any potential risks of harm that it needs to find out more about.
What is cafcass?
The cafcass website says: “Cafcass stands for Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. We represent the interests of children and young people in family court cases in England. We independently advise the family courts about what is safe for children and in their best interests. We focus on their needs, wishes and feelings, making sure that children’s voices are heard and are at the heart of the family court’s thinking and decision making.”
If the application is made against you
If you are the respondent, then you will receive the application form(s) and hearing date from the court.
You then need to complete Form C7.
If the applicant has filed a C100 supplemental information form because they are alleging domestic abuse or harm, then you can fill in the respondent’s section of this form to reply.
Non-court dispute resolution form
At least 7 days before the first court hearing both parties must submit Form FM5 which is about your views on non-court dispute resolution.