Keeping in Contact
27 April 2009
The old adage is that when relationships break down it is the children who suffer the most and generally this appears to be true. Children lose out financially when their parents try to make two households out of what was one household. However they can also lose out emotionally.
Readers will be familiar with stories of adults whose relationships break down and whose children are emotionally injured in the fallout. Sometimes a parent’s disapproval of the other parent is expressed in no uncertain terms to the child. At other times it can be more subtle but the child will still understand the meaning. With older children, parents can sometimes confide in their child and want emotional support from the child which is inappropriate for the child’s age. It is often understandable. The parents will often be struggling to cope with his or her own feelings and it is almost inevitable that the child will pick up on this.
In situations such as these contact between the parent who no longer lives in the family home and the child is likely to be very difficult and that parent may seek a contact order from the court which the mother must abide by. This will usually set out precise times for contact each week or fortnight.
The great difficulty with this, however, as highlighted by recent high profile campaigns from pressure groups such as Fathers 4 Justice is that sometimes the parent that does live with the child will not abide by those court orders. The difficulty then is enforcing those orders. Strictly not obeying a court order is contempt of court and is taken extremely seriously by the court. It can result in a fine or even imprisonment. However the court has been reluctant to impose these sanctions because they are often not in the best interests of the child. In some cases where one parent has repeatedly frustrated contact the court has made a residence order in favour of the other parent. However these cases are rare and often the circumstances of the case would not make this an appropriate order.
In order to address this, legislation has recently been introduced to allow courts to impose an unpaid work requirement on parents in certain circumstances where the court is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that a parent has failed to comply with the contact order. Furthermore the court can order that financial compensation be paid to a parent who suffers financial loss if contact is frustrated. This covers the situation where one parent has booked to take a child on holiday and the other parent will then not allow the child to go on that holiday.
Other measures have also been introduced to allow the court to encourage contact by making orders to promote contact. These can be activities such as the absent parent attending anger management classes or classes which will in some way enable contact to happen.
It is not yet clear whether these measures will be effective in promoting contact, but at least now the court has more powers at its disposal to assist contact where possible. Whether they work or not is a matter of watching this space.
Contact Eleanora Bryant, Solicitor for the Family Team at Brachers Law, Maidstone on 01622 690691 or e-mail eleanorabryant@brachers.co.uk
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