VIC Mother of Children Breaching Family Court Orders?

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sammy01

Well-Known Member
27 September 2015
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Ok so you're wasting your time and money doing contraventions on phone calls. Forget it. I know I know, it sucks. But the world ain't fair. Pick your battles.

Next - play nice - but play hard. No legal advice here. Just a parent who has been in a similar situation. When you pick the kid up, ask him what he wants to do with the weekend. When you drop him off, spend the last 5 min talking about what was great about weekend with dad. It is re-enforcing in the kid's brain that dad is ok and dad is fun. Leave the kid to work out if mum is talking crazy. He will.

I'm guessing you have a primary school aged child? My kids eventually worked out that dad's house was fun and happy but mum's house was stressful. They worked it out for themselves...
 

barmite

Well-Known Member
22 June 2016
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What happens if or when the mother withholds the child ? She hasn't yet, but if she does, how many times is she allowed to do it before you can apply for a contravention order?

Can a third party person be charged for helping the mother withhold children?
 

AllForHer

Well-Known Member
23 July 2014
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How many times? As many as you want to tolerate. If the tolerance threshold is zero, then she can contravene once and you can take action.

There's two ways a contravention order can be 'excused' - the parent had a reasonable excuse for the contravention, or the parent had a genuine fear for the child's safety, but the contravention only lasted for a reasonable time.

Can a third party be 'charged'? No, for two reasons. First, family law matters are civil matters and contraventions are quasi-criminal, not criminal, so nobody gets 'charged' with contravening an order. They simply have a contravention order made against them. Second, contravention proceedings can only be brought against the parties to whom the parenting order applies. They don't bind any third parties.