Familiy Court Information

You can ask the Family Court to make a number of decisions about how you care for your children. How it does this depends on what you want it to do:

We need the court to make a decision because we can't agree – standard track:

If you can't agree, you can ask the court to make Orders about how you'll care for your children. The court can also make sure its Orders are followed (enforce an Order), or it can change (vary) or end (discharge) an Order. In most cases when you can't agree you'll most likely to need to have taken part in Parenting Through Separation and Family Dispute Resolution before applying to the Family Court.

We've agreed but want the court to enforce our agreement – simple track:

If you've agreed, the Family Court can make your private agreement a Consent Order. You may want to do this so the Family Court can make sure you both do what you've agreed by enforcing the Order.

I need urgent help from the court – without notice track:

If you need an urgent decision from the Family Court you can ask for it without notice. You would do this if you or your children are at risk, or if your children might be taken overseas without your agreement, in the near future.

Appearing in court:

If your case is on the standard or simple tracks you may need to do some things in the Family Court without a lawyer. Help on understanding the court process is available in Settling a dispute about children in court at http://www.justice.govt.nz/family-justice

All the information you require is available on the Ministry of Justice, Family Justice website www.justice.govt.nz/family-justice and it has some useful walk through steps, and brochures to explain the process and the things you need to do to apply for, or vary, a Parenting Order. Information on Protection Orders is also available on this website for anyone experiencing family violence.