Case Study: Putting the child’s best interest first, always

Problem

Our client, the father, had a very difficult relationship with the mother of their two young children. The mother refused to allow our client to have overnight care of the children. The mother would only allow any contact to happen when a court order was made. The children knew that their mother strongly disliked their father.

Advice

We argued that the children had a good relationship with their father and that this was being inhibited by the mother’s view of the father. The father had a beautiful and happy home the children enjoyed visiting. The children wanted to spend more time with their father but were reluctant to say this because of the impact of the acrimony between their parents.

Outcome

The court agreed that it was in the children’s best interests to have strong relationships with both parents and this could only be developed with the introduction of overnight contact. Through a series of challenging court hearings the final result was extensive residential contact between the children and their father including a 50/50 division of the school holidays.