Documenting Your Parenting Agreement: Consent Orders

What is a Parenting Consent Order? 

If you both agree on your parenting arrangements you can document your agreement by putting it into Consent Orders. This applies to not only Parents, but can also include Grandparents.

You get an Order documenting your parenting agreement by completing an Application for Consent Orders and all the associated documents required by the Court.

You file the documents with the Court, asking the Court to make Orders on the same terms as the agreement you have reached.

The Court must approve the Consent Orders for them to be binding and enforceable.

If the Court thinks the agreement you have both reached is in the best interests of the Child then the Court will make the Orders you have agreed on.

If the Court has approved the Consent Orders do not carry any less weight just because you reached agreement on them yourselves.

 

 

Consent Orders have the same legal force as if the Court had decided to make those same Orders after a full Court hearing with people giving evidence and presenting documents.

A Consent Order made about parenting arrangements, has the same effect as if the Court made its own Order after hearing all evidence.

A Consent Order is a Court Order.

Consequences can follow if the Orders are contravened (breached). You should always get your own independent legal advice before you agree to Consent Orders.

Documenting a Parenting Agreement: More Information

We also have the following Fact Sheets providing more legal information about documenting your Parenting Agreement:

• How is a Parenting Agreement Documented
• Documening a Parenting Agreement or Not Doing So
• What are the risks of not documenting our Parenting Agreement
• What is a Parenting Plan & what should go in a Parenting Plan
• What is a Parenting Consent Order and do I need one
• Should I use a Parenting Plan or a Consent Order to document our Parenting Agreement

 

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