Litigant in person - draft consent order?

[LovelifeHa]

Hoping someone with experience of the family courts can advise here. I submitted a C100 application to the family court for a child arrangements order as ExP and I couldn't agree on how DS splits his time.

Anyway, we have now reached an agreement and I wondered if I could submit a draft consent order to the Family Court ahead of the Directions hearing. I am a litigant in person so would be drafting this myself - can I do this or should a solicitor draw this up?

I have found a few templates online so it looks possible, I just really wanted to double check with those in the know :-)

Thanks in advance

a consent order must be drafted by a solicitor as it is a legally binding document

Not true. You can do it yourself but it will be legally binding so make sure you know what you are agreeing to and get advice on this if you feel you need it.

Google CAP4 final orders.

There you will find precedents.

If you get stuck you really need to speak to (and pay for) a solicitor.

Can you file a consent order yourself? Yes, you can file a consent order with the courts yourself. In order for the Judge to grant your order, however, you must have the consent order professionally drafted by qualified solicitors

Where are you getting that from?

That text appears to come from divorce-online.co.uk, which then offers to draw up an order for you in return for a fee. It is wrong to say you must have your order professionally drafted. However, doing it yourself risks it being declined if the judge isn't happy with the wording, or not covering you as you intended.

Don't think a website called divorce online does children act work.

I draw up these orders after hearing and my starting point is always the CAP4 orders.

I guess what I'm aiming for is to communicate to the court that ExP and I have reached an agreement as to how DS should spend his time and I thought this was via a draft consent order.

Would a letter to the court/judge asking them to consider the fact that we have reached an agreement ahead of the hearing be sufficient or does that contravene legal process (we are both litigants in person)?

I think a letter to the court/judge explaining that you have reached an agreement, and an explanation as to what that agreement is, would be helpful along with the draft consent order. As others have said, you don’t need a solicitor to do this for you and there will be examples online for you to crib from.

As you have made an application, there will need to be a court order. So I don’t think a letter alone would be sufficient.

Thanks @HDready that's really helpful. I do want an order in place (hence applying in the first place), it was more to convey to the court that we have reached an agreement that we are both happy with and that then could be used to form the basis of the order if that makes sense.

It's not a complex or contentious case (no safeguarding issues/abuse or anything like that) so should be wrapped up pretty quickly I hope

I think you just attend first hearing with this information. Cafcass officer will come and talk to you first anyway. If you have an agreement it should all be quicker. That's my understanding