From January 1st 2021 there will be an important change to the way care proceedings are listed before the judges at Central Family Court (CFC). At the Case Management Hearing (CMH) judges will only list to Issues Resolution Hearings (IRH); they will no longer list to final hearings. This applies to proceedings before the District and Circuit Bench only: please note that this does not apply to proceedings before the Magistrates.
The majority of Care Centres now list only to IRH and that this is proving successful in bringing about the resolution of care proceedings at IRH in many cases. It is also making better use of judicial and court time as listed final hearings are more likely to be effective than is often the case at present.