Change a court order

Overview

You can apply to the court to change a ‘Parenting Order’ or an ‘Order to Settle Dispute Between Guardians’.

If your situation is urgent

The options below may not be right for you because of your situation. You may need to apply for an urgent court order instead because:

someone is being violent or abusive towards you, your child, or both
you or your child's personal safety is at risk
waiting too long to get a court order (if you need one) may cause financial problems
the other parent, legal guardian or whānau member is planning to take your child overseas without your permission.

When to apply for an urgent court order

In this section

Apply to a deputy registrar to change a court order Understand how to ask the Family Court to change a Parenting Order when everyone involved agrees. Apply to a judge to change a court order Understand how to ask the Family Court to change a court order and the reasons why a judge is involved.

Criteria to apply to change a court order

If your court order is less than 2 years old, you must have a significant change in circumstances to apply to the court to change the order. For example, moving to another city.

To apply to change a court order you must be either:

affected by the order
acting on behalf of the child.

A male judge is sitting behind the bench at the front of the court. The judge is looking toward a man and his lawyer.

Changing a Parenting Order

If everyone named as a party in a ‘Parenting Order’ agrees, you can apply to a deputy registrar to change the ‘Parenting Order’ by consent. You don’t need a significant change in circumstances to do this. If a party to the ‘Parenting Order’ disagrees, you can apply to a judge to change your ‘Parenting Order’.

Changing an Order to Settle Disputes Between Guardians

To apply to change an ‘Order to Settle a Dispute Between Guardians’, you must meet one of the following.

You’re affected by the ‘Order to Settle a Dispute Between Guardians’
You’re acting on behalf of the child named on the order.

You can only apply to a judge to change an ‘Order to Settle a Dispute Between Guardians’.

Resources in other languages and alternate formats

We have resources available in different languages and alternate formats. Select the language or alternate format to get the resources relevant to this page.

Resources in other languages
Resources in alternate formats

Feeling overwhelmed?

Going through a change in your whānau situation can be hard. It's normal to feel overwhelmed. There are services available to help and support you through this time.

Visit our help page