The Law: Page 2

Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) / Children's guardian: a person appointed by the court to represent the interests of the child solely during the course of court proceedings. The GAL is therefore quite different from a ‘Guardian’ who may be appointed by a parent to become the child’s Guardian in the event of the parent’s death.

Non-molestation order: an injunctive order which aims to prevent a person ‘associated’ with the family from pestering, threatening, harassing and behaving violently towards another person. Orders are often made without the respondent being notified of the application. Following notification, breaching the terms of the order is a criminal offence.

A prohibited steps order: In the words of The Act: "‘a prohibited steps order’ means an order that no step which could be taken by a parent in meeting his parental responsibility for a child, and which is of a kind specified in the order, shall be taken by any person without the consent of the court.”  In other words, a specific restriction is imposed on the excercise of responsibility. A parent can be prohibited from taking any number of steps, though the most common scenario is where one parent, suspecting that the other may be planning to move abroad with the child, applies for an order that s/he be ‘prohibited from removing the child from the jurisdiction’.

A specific issue order: In the words of The Act: “a ‘specific issue order’ means an order giving directions for the purpose of determining a specific question which has arisen, or which may arise, in connection with any aspect of parental responsibility for a child.”  These orders are ‘positive’ orders in that they require a parent to do or allow something rather than ‘prohibit’ a certain act . A common example is where the court is asked to determine which school a child shall attend.  Other examples could be: determining that a child should be circumcised; that the child should take part in certain religious practices; that a child should be entered for entrance exams; etc

Care orders: Some separated families will also have children that are subject to a care order. A care order is a court order that places a child under the care of a local authority. The local authority then shares parental responsibility for the child with the parents, and will make most of the important decisions about the child's upbringing, such as where they live and how they are educated.