Procedure and case management

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Public Law Outline

The Public Law Outline is set out in the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010) at FPR 2010, PD 12A and provides for a tightly managed case management system for proceedings under Part IV of the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989) including:

  1. •

    pre-proceedings checklists

  2. •

    annex documents

  3. •

    advocates' meetings

  4. •

    case management hearings

  5. •

    issues resolution hearings, and

  6. •

    directions

See Practice Notes: Public law children procedure—Public Law Outline: overview and key principles, Public law children procedure—commencing proceedings under the Public Law Outline, Public law children procedure—case management under the Public Law Outline and Public law children procedure—extensions to the timetable and withdrawal of proceedings.

Online public law children proceedings

Public law children proceedings may be issued and managed online via the MyHMCTS Family Public Law service.

See Practice Notes: Online public law children proceedings and Family public law HMCTS online service release notes tracker.

Jurisdictional issues

The habitual residence of a child may be a significant factor in the determination of jurisdiction in children proceedings.

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