Child arrangement order - court attendance

[motheroreily]

My ex has made an application for a child arrangment order. This will be to formalise our current agreement. I agree with our arrangement but think it will be good for it be formalised too. He submitted the form with the proposed arrangement and today I got a letter with a court date. I feel so overwhelmed I didn't think we'd have to actually go to court. I thought it would be approved. Will it be ok to go on my own? I can't afford a solicitor

If you agree it’ll be fine, is just a matter of getting it written out and make sure all the details are there etc. To make it quicker you could get together and write it up so it’ll just be a matter of handing it to them, both acknowledging that you agree to it, then it’ll be put on the system and the final papers sent to you to make t official.

Also you won’t need a solicitor, don’t worry!

If you both agree with the current arrangement is there any need to go to court? The courts tend not to make orders unless it's necessary for the child's best interests.

@c3pu it’s always good to make it official just in case one parent suddenly decides to be difficult. It adds a lot of security. They will be happy to make an agreement official, in fact they prefer it to having to make decisions themselves! Even if they couple don’t originally agree they recommend going to mediation to try and make an agreement for them to make official rather then having to have a full hearing where both sides give their opinion and the court have to make the decision.

I seen my solicitor during the week regarding this and they told me the court wouldn't look at it unless there was a disagreement. I wanted one for the same reason, security.

Thank you all for your replies.

Yes we want to do it for security. My ex can be difficult and often turns up to collect from school on odd days without telling me. So it will all be official and will give me piece of mind.

He submitted the proposed agreement with the form and we both signed it.

That's good to know I won't need a solicitor. Do I need to prepare anything? Bring evidence or notes?

The solicitor who had written to my ex in past asked me for an update and said could she close the file.

So i asked her and said she thought it was just to ensure everything is uncontested, to confirm that CAFCASS have no safeguarding issues and then the order will be ratified.

But then she said she hadn't actually come across this situation and they don’t tend to submit consent orders for approval.

Which made me feel a bit confused and worried we were doing something odd.