The C100 Form: How to Apply to the Family Court About Your Child

The C100 form is the application you use to ask a family court in England and Wales to decide something about your child. It is the single most common children application in the country, and it is written for lawyers rather than for parents.

This guide covers what the form is for, the step most people are surprised by, what it costs in 2026, the pages that catch people out, and what actually happens between filing and your first hearing.

What the C100 is for

One form covers three different orders, and you usually apply for one of them rather than all three:

• A child arrangements order — where your child lives, and when they spend time with each parent. This is what most people mean when they talk about going to court over contact.
• A prohibited steps order — stopping someone from taking a specific action, such as changing a child's surname, removing them from the country, or moving school, before the dispute is resolved.
• A specific issue order — asking the court to decide one defined question, such as which school the child should attend or whether a particular medical treatment should go ahead.

The fee is the same whichever you apply for. What is not the same is how specific you have to be. A vague application asking the court to sort out contact generally is much harder to resolve than one that sets out a proposed schedule with days, times and places.

Before you apply: the meeting most people do not expect

Before most applications about a child, you are expected to attend a MIAM — a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting. It is a session with an authorised mediator, usually forty five to sixty minutes, in which you talk through what is in dispute and whether mediation could resolve it. It typically costs around a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty pounds per person, and it is free if you qualify for legal aid.

Three things about the MIAM that matter:

• The mediator signs your form. Without that signature, or a valid exemption, the court can refuse to accept the application.
• It does not last forever. A MIAM is treated as current for four months. Delay your application and you may have to do it again.
• Exemptions genuinely exist, and you tick them on the form. They cover situations including domestic abuse, urgency, child protection concerns, and cases where mediation has already been tried and is not appropriate. If any of these apply to you, say so on the form rather than forcing yourself into a session that is not safe.

It is worth taking the process seriously rather than treating it as a box to tick. Mediation resolves a large share of these disputes without a hearing, it is far cheaper, and courts look favourably on parents who have genuinely tried. Our MIAM and mediation guide covers costs, exemptions and what to expect in detail.

Getting the current form, and choosing how to file

Always take the form from GOV.UK on the day you fill it in. The C100 is revised periodically, and courts return applications made on superseded versions — which costs you weeks for no reason. If you already downloaded a copy months ago, download it again.

You have two routes:

• Online. The digital service is the recommended route. You can save progress and come back, with twenty eight days to complete it, and the application gets to the court faster than paper.
• On paper. Printable, and completable by hand in black ink. The form asks for at least three copies, because the court needs one, you need one, and the other parent must be served with one.

The fee, and how to reduce it

The court fee for an application about a child has been two hundred and seventy pounds since 13 July 2026, up from two hundred and sixty three pounds. It applies to applications issued on or after that date.

If paying it would be a struggle, apply for Help with Fees on form EX160. Two things worth knowing before you pay:

• Apply at the same time, not afterwards. Retrospective applications are much more likely to be refused. File the EX160 with the C100, or apply online as part of the application.
• If you already paid and were eligible, a refund is possible, but only where you paid within the last three months and met the criteria at that time.

A MIAM sits on top of the court fee, and a solicitor sits on top of both. Some firms offer a fixed fee to prepare a C100 and a consent order where you have already agreed the arrangement — worth asking for if your ex is broadly in agreement and you just want it made binding. Ask for a written quote, and check whether the court fee is included or billed separately.

The pages and sections that catch people out

Most applications that go wrong are not rejected. They are simply harder work for everyone, which means more time, more cost and more conflict. The usual culprits:

• Asking for the wrong order. Parents regularly apply for a prohibited steps order when what they actually want is a child arrangements order, or vice versa. Read the descriptions on the form twice.
• Turning the form into a statement. The form asks what you are asking for and why. Attach a short, dated, factual summary rather than a ten page account of the relationship — the length of a document is not evidence of anything.
• No proposed schedule. If you are asking for time with your child, say exactly what you are asking for: which days, what times, who collects, and where. A judge can work with that. A judge cannot work with a request to sort it out fairly.
• Leaving out the C1A. If you are raising allegations of harm or abuse, they belong on the supplemental form with dates and details. Allegations described vaguely cannot be acted on.
• Not using form C8 when you need it. If there is a safety risk in the other parent knowing your address, use the confidential address form and leave the address off the served copies.

What happens after you apply

Once the application is issued, the court arranges the first hearing and the parties are notified. The first hearing should ordinarily be in week five after issue, and week six at the latest.

Before that hearing, the court arranges welfare and safeguarding enquiries about everyone named in the application. That is routine; it happens in almost every case and it is not an accusation about either parent. Depending on the circumstances, the court may also ask for a more detailed report on the family from a children's welfare officer, which our parenting plan guide explains how to prepare for.

The first hearing is usually a First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment. Its purpose is to narrow the disagreement, not to decide the whole case on the day. The judge will ask what is agreed, what is genuinely in dispute, and whether mediation or a further report would help. Outcomes range from a full agreement recorded as an order, through directions to mediation, to a timetable for evidence and a final hearing.

For context on timescales: the average children case took around thirty three weeks from start to finish in April to June 2026. Many cases settle at or shortly after the first hearing, and those that do not usually settle before a final hearing rather than at one.

Doing it yourself, or using a solicitor

The C100 is deliberately designed to be usable by parents without a lawyer, and plenty of people complete it themselves. If your situation is straightforward — you broadly agree on the arrangement and you want it made binding — the work is mostly in being specific and attaching the right documents.

After the order: what it does, and what it does not

An order binds both parents, and it carries a warning notice explaining the consequences of not following it. Non-compliance has real remedies — enforcement orders, compensation, and in serious cases contempt proceedings. Our separate guide on what happens when a parent breaches a child arrangement order goes through those options and what a court expects to see.

What an order does not do is make communication easier, and it does not keep a schedule straight. Those are separate jobs. A structured channel for messages, and one shared calendar both parents can see, do more for day-to-day peace than any hearing — and they mean that if you ever are back in front of a judge, you have a dated record of what actually happened rather than a memory of it.

That is what Larkling is for. The shared calendar, structured messaging and expense tracking are free, and one account covers the whole family, so a schedule can hold together whether or not your co-parent logs in. The custody schedule builder is a free way to work out the pattern first, and the parenting plan checklist turns it into something you can put in front of a mediator or a court.

This guide is general information about how the family court process works in England and Wales, not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts — take advice from a solicitor or an accredited mediator about your own situation. Fees and timescales are those published in October 2026 and can change.