competent parent

  The case involved a boy aged 9 years who had lived with his mother.  The mother re-partnered and had two younger children.  The father expressed concern that the child was exposed to family violence in the...

  The parents separated before the child was born.  The child who was aged 7 years at the time of the hearing had lived with the mother for six years before a family court issued an...

Two professionals reported their assessments about attachments of a four year old child who had been removed from the care of his parents and had been in the care of foster parents for a period of...

Both parents sought primary residence of three children aged 8, 6 and 5 years.  A previous judge had made orders that the children live primarily with the father and live with the mother on some days....

The case involved a dispute between parents and maternal grandparents of children aged 9 and 7 years.  Contact between the children and grandparents ended following a dispute.  Five years later the grandparents applied to spend time...

There was a dispute between both parents of boys aged 10 and 6 years and the paternal grandparents.  The parents had resolved that neither boy spend time with their grandparents following a series of incidents.  Incidents...

The case involved two boys, C aged 8 and T aged 4 years.  Ms J was the mother of both boys, from different fathers Mr T and Mr C.  The boys lived with their maternal grandparents ...

A couple separated and had a son aged 7 years at the time of the hearing.  The mother re-partnered. The child lived with the mother and spent time with the father.  The father requested sole parental...

A trial judge accepted an assessment by a consultant that a father had an inappropriate relationship with his daughter aged 11 years as he talked to her about everything, he confided in her in many topics...

The case involved parents who lived together with four children: MD aged 6.5 years, AD aged 4 years, ND aged 2.25 years and SD aged 4 months.   All four children had been removed from the parents’...

Evidence was presented that the mother of a 9 year old boy had a long standing schizoaffective disorder following a post-partum psychosis, where the condition was managed by medication provided by a multi-disciplinary team, and that...

A child was born after the couple had a very brief relationship, and the child was never raised jointly by the two parents.  Both parents were socially vulnerable, and neither had worked recently.  The parents lived...

A couple were married for 4 years before separation, with 2 children aged 10 and 7 years.   Both parents had re-married. One daughter had special needs due to a global developmental delay, and she received regular...

A mother alleged that she had been subjected to family violence and took two children aged 8 and 6 years to visit members of her extended family overseas.  The mother returned only because of a court...

The mother of a 3 year old had commenced a relationship with a new partner (re-partnered).  The father asked for an order to prevent their daughter from coming into contact with the mother’s new partner. The...

A couple had two children aged 13 and 7 years.  An initial order for shared care granted 9 days to the mother and 5 days to the father.  The mother applied for the order to be...

A couple with 3 children separated with the children living with their mother with a shared parental responsibility arrangement.   The father sought time with the children, and this was opposed by the mother. The mother alleged that the father...

A father appealed an order that an 11 year old boy live with the mother and spend time with the father.  The judge found that the parents were unable to cooperate and that ongoing litigation had...

The Family Law Act refers to ‘reasonable grounds to believe.’  The judge found that facts that provide reasonable grounds for a suspicion or belief do not lead to a positive finding of abuse or violence. Probability...

A child had lived with her father for five years and spent time with the mother following issue of final orders.  Evidence was given in the trial that the mother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia with symptoms...

Evidence was given that the father of a 6 year old had a psychotic condition of schizoaffective disorder and had exhibited family violence.  The father’s own family had taken out apprehension of violence orders (AVO) against...

Legislation in Australia allows people to apply for three types of intervention that affect family members: a parenting order from a Family Law Court (Family Circuit Court) a child protection order from a Children’s Court an...

COAG – Levels of Parenting The Council of Australian Governments COAG considered child protection matters in 2009 after state governments expressed concern about the increasing numbers of children being removed from the care of their birth...