rehabilitation

The mother of children aged 10 and 7 years was in her third long term relationship.  The first relationship commenced when she was aged 18 years and produced 3 children.  The second relationship commenced when the mother was...

The biological father of a child aged 15 years had undergone hormone therapy to re-assign his gender to female (gender change).  The father applied to spend time with the child although the child was found to be completely...

The judge found that there was an unacceptable risk to children aged 15, 12 and 9 years due to a range of factors.  The father had been convicted of aggravated indecent assault of a child of the...

A child was aged 3 years.  The father was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder and an expert opined that the father remained at risk of relapse.  The father had been charged with fighting.  The father reported...

A child aged 9 years was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and both parents agreed that the child required a high degree of structure, predictability and consistency in her daily routines.  The child had previously lived with the...

The father acknowledged that he had behaved towards the mother in a manner that was mean spirited and verbally abusive towards the mother at times, and that some of this behaviour had occurred in front of the children.  The father at...

Both parties wanted to restrict the child’s relationship with the other to occasional supervised visits, either temporarily or permanently.  It was common ground that the mother had refused to allow the child to spend any time with...

Evidence was given that a mother experienced post-traumatic stress disorder which she attributed entirely to the actions of the father as he had been emotionally controlling and abusive towards her.  The father denied that events described by the mother took place. ...

A child aged 10 years had spent limited time with the father, and the mother alleged the child was at risk of harm in the father’s care as family violence had occurred during their brief relationship.  The...

A mother held a genuine strong belief that the father had sexually abused his stepdaughter (the mother’s daughter) when aged 13 years, but the father had been found not guilty in criminal proceedings.   The father had two children aged 7 and...

A father applied for a child aged 8 years to participate in a special education placement but the mother failed to file a response despite the Court’s directions to do so.  Evidence was presented that the child had attended...

The mother of a 7 year old child sought to reduce the time the child spent with the father pending an updated Family Report.  The mother also sought to disqualify the family consultant on the grounds of apprehension of...

Paternal grandparents applied for orders to spend time with the parties’ younger children who were twin boys aged 8 years.  Six months after the paternal grandparents had commenced spending regular time with the children, the father applied also to spend time...

  A trial judge made orders enabling the father to spend time with the children, conditional upon a number of factors including successful completion of a three month residential rehabilitation program and completion of parenting programmes.  The father...

  A child aged 2 years had lived primarily with the father since separation, and the mother applied for the child to live with her for equal time.  When the relationship ended the father withheld the child and the...

Four boys aged 14, 12, 11 and 7 years had lived with the father for two years following separation.  The youngest child had moved to live with the mother for eight months while the three older children continued to...

The case involved a girl aged 12 years whose parents had been in ongoing conflict since they separated when she was aged 5 years (intractable conflict).  The child was described as mature. The judge noted there...

Children aged 11 and 8 years were reluctant to spend time with their mother, and the mother stated her strong belief that this occurred because the father did not support her relationship with the children, whereas the father counter-complained that...

Four children had lived with their mother since separation and had recently recommenced spending time with their father.  The mother alleged significant and sustained physical and sexual abuse against both herself and the children but the father denied...

An expert who provided reportable therapy had provided a treatment report to Court although the report had not been requested by court.  The mother asked that a family consultant also be appointed as the treatment report did not address...

The case involved an infant aged 1 year whose parents were from the Tongan culture.  Before the child’s birth the biological parents had agreed to transfer parental responsibility to the applicants who were non-parents, and this...

The father of children aged 15 and 13 years alleged that his ex-partner’s new husband posed an unacceptable risk of sexual abuse as the new husband was on the sexual offenders register following an incident 7 years...

The father of a girl aged 5 years who acknowledged frequently watching adult pornography was found to have 518 images of child pornography on his computer.  The images were rated using a COPINE scale that showed...

Twins aged 12 years lived with their mother.  The father alleged that the mother tried to alienate the children from him as had occurred with an older sister. The judge had ordered that the children participate...

A lawyer for a wife applied for a case guardian to be appointed so that a hearing could be re-opened and further evidence presented.  The wife had suffered a stroke resulting in loss of power to...

Three children including twins aged 6 years and a 3 year old infant had always lived in the primary care of the mother.  The father worked rostered shift work and he was an untested primary carer....

Parents of twins aged two years separated and the mother lived with her own parents and the children lived with the father.  The mother had been detained to a psychiatric hospital following the end of a...

Parents had been separated for five years and the children aged 16, 14 and 7 years lived with the mother.  All three children had decided against spending time with the father, with no contact for four...

Children aged 15 years and 13 years had lived with their father and spent time with the father after the parents separated.  The mother then developed a dependence on the drug methamphetamine and associated with criminals...

A mother was ordered to have supervised access with her child aged 13 years but she found it too difficult to meet conditions set by a contact centre.  The mother had alleged sexual abuse of the...

A child aged 3 years lived with the mother and spent time with the father.  The judge ordered that the time spent with the father increase in a graduated approach according to the child’s age as...

  The case involved three children aged 8, 6 and 4 years.   The father alleged that the mother had over a long period of time before and after their separation threatened him and the children (family violence)....

The child was aged 6 years at the time of the hearing, and had been previously cared for by the mother, father and paternal grandmother.  The mother was aged 16 years when the child was born,...

  Concepts used in family law courts to describe personalities of parents who brought a dispute to Court were studied, based on a sample of cases summarised in Complexfamilies. Concepts to Describe Personality The DSM-5 international system for classifying...

Parents of a child aged 12 years referred the child to an assessing psychologist following their separation as the child was not coping with the separation.  The psychologist asked the parents to sign a form agreeing that...

After parents separated a child lived with the mother and spent time with the father who lived with a male companion.  The mother alleged that the child was sexually abused and withheld the child from the...