West Hertfordshire Magistrates
The Family Courts
1. The person or agency against whom the petition is filed is the Respondent.
2. The person or agency filing the petition is the Applicant.
The courts make most decisions about children using a law known as the Children Act 1989.
Those decisions may be about:
• where the child will live
• who the child will see
• who is responsible for the child
• financial support for the child.
3. Social Services will often come to court to give evidence about what they know about a particular family and why they think a particular course of action is necessary.
4. The Guardian is a very experienced social worker who handles cases involving children. They talk to the children involved and tell the magistrates what they think will be best for the child or children.
The Guardian is an indpendent person who meets with all the differnet people in the case, talks to them and prepares a report which helps the magistrates to decide what is the best thing to do in the future.
4
3
2
1
(c) Magistrates Association
<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-3462856");
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>
