Good morning everyone, I've just joined up after finding this forum searching for information that may help with an issue my partner is currently facing regarding his kids.
He has been separated for over three years, divorced for 18 months. He reached financial settlement with his partner 2 years ago however she has always refused to sign any parenting/consent orders relating to the children - hence there are NO orders in place.
His children are aged 14(girl) and 12 (boy). He has an excellent relationship with them both and they currently spend 4 nights per fortnight with him (Thursday-Monday) every second week. At the start of this year, he requested of his ex that he be able to have the children live with him equal time (week on/week off), He is an extremely involved Dad, very caring, pays all school fees plus generous child support (basically pays every expense the kids have) - Basically as a dad, you could say nothing bad about him.The kids supported the notion of having equal time with their dad, however their mother flatly refused to even discuss the issue and told them it wouldn't be happening as "its not what I want".
After getting nowhere with the discussion, and seeing it was having an affect on the kids, he then arranged counseling for himself, his ex and the kids - even after the counselor recommending in her report that his ex wife and her issues (she didn't want the divorce and is carrying some bitterness) was really the only obstacle to a 50/50 arrangement she still refused to budge- again, the only reason she would give is "I don't want 50/50"
He then went and sought the opinion of another counselor, (one of the most prominent family counselors in Sydney)who wanted to meet with both him, his ex and the kids over several sessions to finally work an arrangement out. She refused to attend and even wrote to the counselor in question and expressly forbade her from seeing the children. He has also had a few sessions with counselors from Relationships Australia around parenting issues in the past few years with no issues ever being resolved.
My question is - with kids of this age, who support 50/50 time, and no parenting orders in place, what are his options/rights from here? Obviously he would like to avoid court due to time, expense, and impact on the kids. With no orders, who has the "legal" rights here? His ex wife believes she does as the 4 nights per fortnight arrangement has been in place since they separated - even though at the time, this arrangement was agreed to on the basis it was to be flexible in the future.
Other things to consider - there is no day to day high conflict with the ex apart from her unwillingness to communicate or seek resolution to this issue, they both own their own homes only 4km apart from each other in Sydney (so no issues around schooling, activities, friends etc). If the kids ever leave something his home he happily drops it to them, he has bought them clothes etc to just keep at his house to minimise things they need to bring with them, etc. The kids support equal time with him but are obviously influenced to a high degree by their mother's emotions regarding the divorce.
What is the best way legally to handle a situation like this? Even if he wanted to go to court, he would obviously need to see FDR practitioner first. Is a FDR practitioner going to be able to mediate on this to the extent they will actually tell him and his ex what they believe the outcome should be? Are they able to make that decision based on what they believe the outcome in court would be?
Any help or advice on similar cases or issues would be greatly appreciated!
He has been separated for over three years, divorced for 18 months. He reached financial settlement with his partner 2 years ago however she has always refused to sign any parenting/consent orders relating to the children - hence there are NO orders in place.
His children are aged 14(girl) and 12 (boy). He has an excellent relationship with them both and they currently spend 4 nights per fortnight with him (Thursday-Monday) every second week. At the start of this year, he requested of his ex that he be able to have the children live with him equal time (week on/week off), He is an extremely involved Dad, very caring, pays all school fees plus generous child support (basically pays every expense the kids have) - Basically as a dad, you could say nothing bad about him.The kids supported the notion of having equal time with their dad, however their mother flatly refused to even discuss the issue and told them it wouldn't be happening as "its not what I want".
After getting nowhere with the discussion, and seeing it was having an affect on the kids, he then arranged counseling for himself, his ex and the kids - even after the counselor recommending in her report that his ex wife and her issues (she didn't want the divorce and is carrying some bitterness) was really the only obstacle to a 50/50 arrangement she still refused to budge- again, the only reason she would give is "I don't want 50/50"
He then went and sought the opinion of another counselor, (one of the most prominent family counselors in Sydney)who wanted to meet with both him, his ex and the kids over several sessions to finally work an arrangement out. She refused to attend and even wrote to the counselor in question and expressly forbade her from seeing the children. He has also had a few sessions with counselors from Relationships Australia around parenting issues in the past few years with no issues ever being resolved.
My question is - with kids of this age, who support 50/50 time, and no parenting orders in place, what are his options/rights from here? Obviously he would like to avoid court due to time, expense, and impact on the kids. With no orders, who has the "legal" rights here? His ex wife believes she does as the 4 nights per fortnight arrangement has been in place since they separated - even though at the time, this arrangement was agreed to on the basis it was to be flexible in the future.
Other things to consider - there is no day to day high conflict with the ex apart from her unwillingness to communicate or seek resolution to this issue, they both own their own homes only 4km apart from each other in Sydney (so no issues around schooling, activities, friends etc). If the kids ever leave something his home he happily drops it to them, he has bought them clothes etc to just keep at his house to minimise things they need to bring with them, etc. The kids support equal time with him but are obviously influenced to a high degree by their mother's emotions regarding the divorce.
What is the best way legally to handle a situation like this? Even if he wanted to go to court, he would obviously need to see FDR practitioner first. Is a FDR practitioner going to be able to mediate on this to the extent they will actually tell him and his ex what they believe the outcome should be? Are they able to make that decision based on what they believe the outcome in court would be?
Any help or advice on similar cases or issues would be greatly appreciated!