The Family Law Committee (FLC) of the Scottish Civil Justice Council (SCJC) has been working for some time on an instrument that will replace the court form used to seek the views of children in family and civil partnership actions.
The Act of Sederunt (Rules of the Court of Session 1994 and Ordinary Cause Rules 1993 Amendment) (Views of the Child) 2019 was laid before the Scottish Parliament on Friday, 29 March 2019. It inserts new forms to replace existing Forms F9 and CP7 in Chapters 33 and 33A respectively of the Ordinary Cause Rules (OCR) and Form 49.8-N in Chapter 49 of the Rules of the Court of Session (RCS). The new rules come into force on 24 June 2019.
It has long been recognised that there is a need to overhaul the forms currently used for intimation to a child in family actions involving a crave for an order under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 – not only in terms of making the design more child-friendly, but also simplifying some of the vocabulary used. This is particularly important since the forms do not only inform children about the section 11 order that the court has been asked to make, they also provide an opportunity for children to let the court know their views.
A fuller discussion of the changes made by the Act of Sederunt is available here on the SCJC’s website.