Children and Divorce
Most of the present law relating to children is set out in the Children Act 1989, which came into force in October 1991.
Prior to that date one parent - usually the mother - was automatically granted "custody" of any children with "reasonable access" to the other parent. This led to many unnecessary disputes based primarily on "control" of the children. The new Act turned this idea on it's head by decreeing that there should be no orders in respect of children of a marriage unless a problem arose.
At a stroke one of the main bones of contention - control of the children - was removed since no automatic orders for "Residence" or "Contact" are now made. Instead parents are encouraged to share decision-making and co-operate about their children's future. This is known as joint "parental responsibility" defined as all the rights, duties and responsibilities which by law a parent of a child has in relation to that child. Only when the parents cannot agree about what is best for their children will the Court intervene and impose a solution.