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In care proceedings, yes. The child's views will influence the decision of the court. The child is centre stage and his welfare is paramount. The child's views will not necessarily be sought first hand if they are contained in the guardian ad litem's report.

In the UK there is no minimum age that a child has to be before their wishes are taken into account. It depends completely on that particular child and their understanding of the proceedings. If you have a mature 10 year old then their wishes may be taken into account but I would say that 10 is probably too young as they would be influenced too much by their parents.

A CAFCASS officer will be appointed - these are similar to social workers and they are the ones who will generally visit the homes and talk to the children. They then write a report for the court and will set out what they think should happen with the children. So it will be the CAFCASS officer who generally decides how much weight will be placed on what the child wants after talking to them and getting some sort of feeling about the maturity of that child and what would be in their best interests. You can find out more about CAFCASS at www.cafcass.gov.uk

most family court judges will talk with a child of that age. he/she is of an age of understanding, and can discuss with some degree of knowledge what their wishes are.

Now, if both parents are worthy of custody, then the judge will have a bigger issue to work around, and many times provide joint custody if the parents live in proximity to each other.

If I were a family court judge I would listen to the child. However, the child's gender would also be considered. A boy may be better off with good daddy, where a daughter could learn much from mom. It 's a tough call either way.

It's much easier when one or the other parent is not cut out for the job.

Most states, if the child is under the age of 13 or 14, the court will do what it thinks is best, despite what the child wants.

From what I understand, it depends on the matter of the "case". if it's a custody suite, and the parents are NOT at each others throats, then the child is sometimes asked who they would prefer to live with, especially if joint custody is not an option. If it's a matter of pretty much anything else, one would have to wait until the court says the child is old enough to make decisions. I'm not a lawyer, so don't take it to the bank... but I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

In England a child would have a court social worker who only

looks after the childs interest and does not get involved in the battle between the parents

more often than not, a court won't look at a child under 18 years of age in the case of custody or whatever. because they are children. and at 10 years old, you don't know what you really want. you may think you do at that particular moment, but five minutes later (as kids most often do) they change their minds. and then what happens, they're stuck living somewhere where they are unhappy.

NY is usually 12... however I have heard of certain Judges speaking to the child (in chambers) at the age of 10

I think 10 may be too young I believe the child has to be 13 or older before they are able to choose who they want to be with

I hope so at this age the child knows what it wants - speak to your solicitor about it - and see if they can get some kind of statement from the child to avoid the child having to appear in court good luck