Drafting for Advocacy in Children Law Proceedings

Introduction

A family and children law practitioner will frequently be drafting various forms of documents when conducting the matter.

A well-presented, accurate and researched document leads to more effective advocacy in court and at advocates’ and planning meetings

When drafting a case summary or a position statement, what should you include and leave out?

In public children law cases, threshold documents are vital to get right and one needs to ensure it is Re A compliant? What does this mean in practice?

In private children law cases, it is vital to get ‘schedules of allegations’ and ‘narrative statements’ accurate. What do you need to ensure when drafting these?

What directions are required when seeking to instruct an expert? What about funding and ensuring the directions can be complied with?

What is the benefit of a skeleton argument? How does this assist in your advocacy?

These and other questions will be answered in this webinar.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Case Summary - why this document can often be the key document that is referred to from the outset and its usefulness
• Position Statements, draft Directions and draft Orders
• Recitals and Orders - when is it one or the other?
• Preparing ‘Schedules of Allegations’ for fact-finding hearings and the changes to PD12J in 2026
• Use of Narrative Statements in private children law cases
• Preparing and responding to threshold documents - Ensuring compliance with Re A
• Use of standard Orders and instruction of experts - updated Remuneration of Experts Guidance of 2025
• Drafting Case Management Orders and Directions for Placement Order applications
• Use of Skeleton Arguments - how can these help in running court advocacy?

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Thursday 9th July 2026

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 2,101 others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.