Who is who in care proceedings?

As in all legal matters, when people are involved in care proceedings, they are given formal legal titles which they are referred to in court documents. These can be confusing, so this video outlines who is who in court proceedings.
The people involved in proceedings are known collectively as ‘parties’ to the proceedings. This means that they are directly involved in the proceedings.
The local authority are referred to as the ‘Applicant’ as it is their application which is issued at court.
The rest of the parties are known as the Respondents, although each person is given a number in chronological order to separate them from each other.
The mother is known as the First Respondent. Then any father with parental responsibility will be known as the Second Respondent, and there can be more than one father so they would be Third Respondent or Fourth Respondent and so on.
Finally, the child or children are also known as respondents, so they will be given their own number, depending on what number has been reached.
An example is written here to illustrate this further.
If you have been made a party to care proceedings, call 020 8492 2290 and book an appointment with me today.
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