When a family court issues a family order, it needs to be regarded with extreme seriousness. As your family lawyer, and even a criminal lawyer, will tell you, the repercussions of breaching family orders can be severe.
If you do not have children, nor have ever divorced, you may be wondering what a family order is, so let us explain. They are issued by a judge in the Family Court as rulings on matters that relate to a child, or children, normally when that child’s parent separate or divorce. Family orders apply whether the child’s parents were married, or in a de facto relationship.
The sorts of ruling that a family order will apply to, includes which of the two parents the child will live with, the criteria that apply with regards to the absent parent’s visitation rights, and one of the most important, is who has parental responsibility which, unless there are other factors which exist, will normally be held jointly by both parents.
In many cases, a Family Court will issue a family order when, despite the best efforts of their respective family lawyers, the couple has been unable to reach an agreement as it applies to their children. For this reason, it will undoubtedly be made clear to each parent that they must abide by the family order.
As the family order applies to both parents, then theoretically it is possible that both of them could breach it, in different ways. The reality, however, that in cases where a family order has been breached, it tends to only one of the parents which do so. Read More