Courts get tough on contact breaches, new laws announced

After separation or divorce, parents can usually negotiate contact between themselves over contact with their children, sometimes with help from professionals. For many children contact works well even if a court has had to be involved, as has been confirmed by recent research

http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/newsrelease250908a.htm

But if things do not work out, there has been a gap in what the courts can order. From 8^th December 2008, there will be new provisions including:

• parents can be forced to attend a “contact activity” such as relevant parenting classes, before a contact order is made
• the court can provide for monitoring of contact by an independent monitor to see what is actually happening
• if a parent breaches a contact order without reasonable excuse, then the court can impose unpaid work on that parent, in addition to a possible fine for breach of the order as contempt of court.

Cumberland Ellis’s specialist family team can provide mediation and collaborative practitioners, as well as a traditional legal service, to work with parents in establishing successful contact arrangements.