Real Life Dramas

Some of you reading this may have watched Eastenders recently, whereby there was a delay in Martin returning the children to Stacey following contact.  The programme showed Stacey calling at Martin’s home address with the Police to collect the children. Eastenders is, of course, a fictional programme and this particular scenario bore no resemblance to what would happen in the real world as the Police would only be involved in very rare circumstances.  So what is the situation when you are separated from a child’s parent and agreements/Court Orders are broken in respect of the children?

It is worth remembering the starting point under the Children Act 1989 is that it is in a child’s best interests for them to have good quality contact with both parents.  Contact between a child and its natural parents will only be terminated if it can be shown that it is in the best interests of the child to do so.  In reality, this means that contact will take place unless it can be shown the parent with care, or the child, is at risk of suffering harm if contact were to continue.  This does not apply to children that are subject to care proceedings.

If you find yourself disagreeing with your former partner over arrangements relating to the children, in respect of where they should live and when and where they should have contact, you should seek immediate legal advice.  Before any Court application can be made, unless it is an emergency, parents in a Children Act dispute must attend mediation on at least one occasion. It is always better to try and agree arrangements relating to your children because agreements tend to suit the parents, as far as it is possible, whereas an Order imposed by the Court, may only suit one of the parents and at times may not suit either of them.

If a Court Order is made, and in the absence of a genuine emergency, under no circumstances should the order be breached.  The Court have wide ranging powers to enforce Child Arrangements Orders.  The Courts take a very dim view of parents that breach Court Orders without good reason.  The correct approach, if there are genuine concerns about a child’s welfare whilst with the other parent, is for an application to be made to the Court to vary the existing Order.

Children Act proceedings and matters involving children can be very difficult and emotions can run high.  Should you experience any difficulties in respect of arrangements relating to your children, then you should seek independent legal advice from a  fully qualified and experienced Family Solicitor.