Contact
If Residence is not in dispute the question of the non-residents parents contact arrangements needs to be dealt with. Again, if this cannot be achieved by agreement, mediation or negotiation the court would decide what the arrangements should be. Failure to follow what the court has ordered can result in serious repercussions and possible criminal proceedings for contempt of court.
As with the question of Residence, the court, and you in particular, should consider matters from the children’s point of view. You may have separated from the child/children’s other parent but the children have not separated from them. Unless there are compelling reasons not to facilitate reasonable levels of contact with the other parent the children should be shielded as much as possible from the personal issues between you.
We appreciate that this will be a very difficult thing to do, particularly if someone has been unfaithful or has started a new relationship.
There are no set rules for what is a reasonable level of contact for a non-resident parent to exercise. The test is what is in the child/children’s best interests.
We have many years experience of representing clients at court regarding issues with their children. We have dealt with relatively minor disputes to extremely complex and contentious disputes. We will always provide frank advice to you regarding these types of disputes and what you can expect if you do have to go to court. As a firm solely practising in Family Law we know how important this issue is to you and, of course, the child/children.