Allocation and transfer

The Family Court—allocation and transfer of proceedings

The single Family Court (the Family Court) replaced the previous three tiers of court structure in England and Wales (family proceedings court, County Court and High Court) on 22 April 2014. The Family Court is a national court for England and Wales. As a consequence of the introduction of the Family Court, significant changes were made to the allocation and transfer of proceedings.

Save where the High Court has jurisdiction, all cases are to be dealt with in the Family Court. All proceedings and applications must be issued and allocated in the Family Court. Magistrates’ courts and the County Court no longer have jurisdiction to hear family proceedings or matters relating to the enforcement or variation of orders made in family proceedings.

The framework for how the Family Court is composed, and on what basis applications for family proceedings are allocated to different levels of judge, are set out in the Family Court (Composition and Distribution of Business) Rules 2014, SI 2014/840 together with the Joint Statement by the President of the Family Division and the HMCTS Family Business Authority.