Happy Holidays

It’s that time of year when families will be looking forward to getting away for a summer break and if you have children, you will no doubt have already booked your destination.

This piece is not designed to stir up trouble, but rather to provide a cautionary word of warning about potential pitfalls for separated parents with young children who are planning a holiday abroad.

It is an often overlooked legal fact that, if you do not have a child arrangements order in force, which clearly the vast majority of separated parents do not, you should in theory always have the express consent of the other parent (if they share  parental responsibility, which is usually the case) when you take your children out of the jurisdiction (namely England and Wales).

This is usually not an issue at all between reasonable parents, but occasionally one of the parents, if they are embroiled with the other over contact arrangements, will put their foot down and object to the foreign trip.

If this does happen, the remedy is to obtain a specific issue order from the Family Court permitting you to take your children out of the country.

A precaution against the other parent withdrawing consent at the last minute, is to have a document of written consent signed up well in advance of  the foreign holiday, to produce on request to the authorities.

If you need further information about this issue, contact a family law specialist.

Thursday, June 6th, 2019 Children