If you ask your family lawyer how serious a matter breaching a family law order is, they will tell you, ‘Very’.
Courts make family orders primarily for the well-being and welfare of children, and so breaching one can have serious consequences, unless you can show that you have a reasonable excuse.
A parenting order is generally used by the court to lay out the arrangements for the children of a divorced couple when they cannot come to an agreement themselves.
The sorts of matters a family order deals with will be the establishment of parental responsibility for children after a divorce, who the children will primarily live with, and the visitation arrangements for the other parent.
Once the order is in place, the expectation, not least with respect to family law, is that both parents will adhere and comply with the order. This applies as much to the parent with whom the children live with, as it does to the parent they do not live with.
The ways in which a family law order can be breached are many and varied, but all of them will fall under one of four different legal terms.
The first is that one of the parents deliberately fails to comply with the order. An example of this would be if a parent fails to allow the other parent visitation, by taking the children away on the days that it is meant to occur.
The second definition is where one of the parents makes no reasonable attempt to comply. This would be where a parent has visitation dates and times in place, but invariably turns up several hours late, or not at all.
The third is where a parent intentionally makes it impossible for the other person to comply with the order such as cutting off all lines of communication and thus making it impossible for them to discuss or agree on matters relating to the children.
Fourth, there is a breach, where someone helps another breach the order. This could be a friend or grandparent helping one of the parents keep the children away from the other parent.
Now, there may be circumstances in which the person being accused of the breach claims they had good reason to.
Where that parent says they have a reasonable excuse, then the court will listen to their claim, and determine whether or not they were justified.
Examples of reasonable excuses might be that they believed the children might have come to harm, or that they did not fully understand the order, and thus did not realise they were in breach.
Whether it is these or other reasons, the person accused of the breach should seek legal advice.
The reason for seeking legal advice is that the consequences of breaching a family order for the parent who does so are far-ranging and can be severe.
The court can amend the original order and that can have implications for that parent’s right to either have the children live them, or for their visitation rights, depending on which parent they are.
Beyond the variations to the order, paying legal costs and compensation to the other parent might be ordered by the court.
Ultimately, there can be a fine, or even imprisonment if the breach is serious enough, or the parent in question is seen to have breached the order on numerous occasions.
