Child recovery orders

When the Court issues a parenting order to the parties involved, each person affected is legally bound to comply with what the order states. Litigation lawyers Perth can help you if your former partner does not adhere to the parenting order. If the other party involved suddenly refuses to return your children, or the order states that it’s your turn to spend time with your children and this not being followed, this could grounds for a recovery order. There are also other orders that apply when you do not know where your children are. These orders are also designed to have your children returned to your care.

Understanding what a recovery order is

A recovery order comes from the Court that enforces the persons involved to return the children to the parent they should be living with, or enforces a parent (or someone who has parental responsibilities) to allow the former partner to spend time and communicate with their children. There are four examples of who can apply for a recovery order;

• Someone who lives with the children, spends time with them, talks to them regularly, all according to a parenting order
• Someone concerned for the child and their development, care or welfare
• One of the grandparents of the children
• Someone who has parental care of the child according to a parenting order as achieved with a litigation lawyer

Applying for a recovery order

There are a number of different processes when it comes to applying for a recovery order, and this changes depending on the situation. Do you have a parenting order in place currently? Is your case for a parenting order still pending? If the answer is yes to those questions, then you can apply for a recovery order with the help of your family litigation lawyers Perth. You will need to file an affidavit stating the facts to support your application and an application in a proceeding.

If you do not have an order, and you do not have proceedings pending, and you want to apply for a recovery order, with that application you will then need to also apply for a parenting order. When an application is filed for a recovery order, the Court understands that there is often urgency with these cases, and a first hearing is arranged within 2 weeks of the filing of that application.

Who finds the children?

The Court creates an order, instructing the applicable authorities to recover and reunite your children with you. Usually, this is the AFP (Australian Federal Police). If the Court agrees to a recovery order you will need to fill out the Recovery Order Family Law Information Sheet and tell the Court straight away if the children are returned. If they are not found there are other processes to go through that your litigation lawyer can advise on such as a location order, publication order, and Commonwealth information order.