Child Custody & Contact

If you're wondering 'what legal rights do step parents have?', we have the answers for you here. Step parents often get bad press, stepping into already made families and having to find their role. Jigsaw relationships can get very complicated with the arrival of additional children or, for example, on the breakdown of a second marriage. It is not surprising that many step parents feel that they have a lot of the responsibility for caring for step children but few, if any, legal rights.  Sometimes it is not until a step parent is challenged that they realise that the law treats step parents differently to biological parents. That challenge can be anything from nursery staff asking if a step parent has the biological parent’s authority to collect a child from nursery or the school nurse needing the biological parent’s agreement to the immunisation of a child. These scenarios are what many step parents face on a daily basis. That can be frustrating especially when one of the biological parents could be ‘off the scene’ leaving the step parent to parent the child. So what rights does a step parent have? Who is classed as a step parent? In this day and age with so many different types of relationship many people are referred to as ‘step parents’ but legally to be considered  a ‘step parent’ you have to be married or have been married to the child’s biological parent. If you are living in a cohabiting relationship with a parent of children you are not classed as a step parent but you may still be able to ask the court to make orders in your favour provided that you are considered a significant person in the child’s life, and the court gives you permission to apply for a court order. Does a step parent automatically have parental responsibility for their step children? We all know that children say ‘you can't do that, you are not my parent’ but in some situations a step parent can acquire parental responsibility for a step child. Parental responsibility is one of those legal concepts and means that an adult (normally the biological parent) has rights and responsibilities for their child, understanding what a Parental Responsibility Agreement is goes a long way to understand your legal rights as a step parents. A step parent can get parental responsibility for a child if: A court makes a child arrangements order saying that the child should live with the step parent or with the step parent and another person, such as one of the biological parents; When a step parent adopts a step child ( this type of adoption is now uncommon); When a parental responsibility agreement is signed by all those who hold parental responsibility for the child. The people with parental responsibility for the child are normally the child’s mother and the child’s biological father providing he has met certain criteria; A court makes a parental responsibility order on the application to court by a step parent. [related_posts] What Is Step Parent ‘Parental Responsibility’? Parental responsibility is about the rights and responsibilities for a child, whether the child is biologically yours or a step child. If a step parent gets parental responsibility for a child they have exactly the same rights and responsibilities towards the child as all the other people who hold parental responsibility. No one person’s parental responsibility is more important than anyone else who has parental responsibility. If there is more than one person with parental responsibility for a child and they can’t agree on what is in a child’s best interests anyone with parental responsibility can make an application to the court to decide the question in dispute by making a specific issue order. How do you get step parent parental responsibility? If a mother agrees to a step father having parental responsibility for a child the easiest way to get parental responsibility is to fill in a parental responsibility agreement. The form records that the step father of the child is acquiring parental responsibility for the child. The stepfather will then share parental responsibility with the child’s mother. If the child’s biological father has parental responsibility he will also need to agree to the step father acquiring parental responsibility for the child.    As parental responsibility is an important legal concept the document has to be a standard agreement form and signatures have to be witnessed at your local court. Paperwork confirming the parents and child’s identity also need to be produced. Do you have to pay child support if you have parental responsibility for your step child? Whether or not you have legal parental responsibility for your step child you may be asked to financially support your step child if you separate. The financial responsibility comes from the fact that you married the child’s parent and doesn't have anything to do with the fact that you have parental responsibility for the child. The child maintenance service usually assesses how much child support should be paid for a child. However there are exceptions to this rule and in the case of step parents only a family court (and not the child maintenance service) can order that a step parent contribute financially towards their step child’s upbringing.    Do step parents have an automatic right to see a child if they separate from the child’s biological parent? A step parent doesn't have an automatic right to continue to see a step child if they separate from the biological parent of the child. Some people think that is wrong but the person may not have been a step parent for very long before the marriage broke down or the child may already have a very large and complex family structure involving contact with biological dad as well as a first step dad and the various sets of grandparents and step grandparents. For a child it can be very difficult to juggle contact with family as well as meet homework deadlines and keep up with sporting commitments and see school friends. If a step parent believes that they are significant to the child and ongoing contact with the child is opposed then the step parent can ask the court for permission to apply for a child arrangements order allowing them to see the child. A court will decide on whether the contact is in the child’s best interests. For legal help with any aspect of children law please Contact Us

If the father has parental responsibility for the child, then no, you cannot take them abroad without his consent. Under the Child Abduction Act 1984, it is a criminal offence for a parent to take a child under the age of 16 out of the UK without the appropriate consent. Fail to get permission and you could be jailed for child abduction. We are Cheshire children solicitors If you want to take your child away on holiday or overseas to live and need help getting consent contact us When taking your child abroad goes wrong It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that as you are the mother you don’t need anyone’s permission to take your child overseas on holiday or to live. That’s exactly what happened to one mother in October 2016, when she was jailed by Exeter Crown Court. The mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, took her daughter to Cambodia against the wishes of the father and in direct contravention of a court order. Before leaving the UK in October 2013, the woman took out £30,000 in loans. Her and her daughter were later expelled from Cambodia after overstaying their visas. Read the report on the BBC website. In sentencing her to 2 years and 6 months in jail, Judge Graham Cottle stated that he did not agree with her defence that she was acting in the best interest of the child. Cottle said that her decision to ignore the court order “tells me you did not have her interests at heart. You had your own completely misguided and selfish interests at heart." The daughter has subsequently been placed in the care of a foster family while her mother serves out her sentence. Who has parental responsibility for a child, and so must be asked before going on holiday? All mothers are automatically given parental responsibility, as do fathers who are: Named on the birth certificate (from 1st December 2003) ; or Who are married to the mother. A father can gain parental responsibility by marrying the mother (before or after the child’s birth) or through an order of the court or by signing a parental responsibility agreement. If the father does not have parental responsibility, you are not legally required to ask his permission before travelling although it is good practice to do so. When can you take your child abroad without the father’s consent? If you have a child arrangement order which states that the child should live with one parent (you), you are free to take them abroad for a maximum of 28 days without needing to gain permission, unless there is a court order to the contrary. You can also take a child abroad on holiday if there is a specific court order in place allowing you to do so. In order to obtain one, you will need to prove to the court that the trip is in the best interest of the child. Go to court prepared with your date of departure, date of return, means of travel and other pertinent details, including background  information on your separation. In my experience, such preparation tends to pay off. Before you even go to court, I’d recommend that you speak to one of our Cheshire children solicitors. They’ll be able to give you an honest opinion of your chances of success, based on years of experience. Remember, the more you tell them about your relationship with the father, the more accurate their advice will be. [related_posts] Problems you could face travelling abroad with your child When travelling abroad without the child’s father with you, it helps to be prepared in case border officials ask questions. While written consent from the father is not required, I would certainly recommend that you get it. Ask the father to write a letter that confirms their agreement with the holiday plan and includes their contact details and specifics about the holiday. You can then present this to the border authorities if asked. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of parents have been stopped at British airports, ports and train stations on suspicion of child abduction, simply because their surname doesn’t match their child’s surname. In the UK, a child’s passport only lists their name, date of birth and place of birth, with no reference to their parents. As a result, we would recommend that you take a copy of the birth, adoption or divorce certificate with you as additional proof of your relationship to your son or daughter.

The short answer is yes you can go to prison for taking your children to live abroad if you don’t have your ex-partner’s agreement or a Court order. The Daily Mail has reported on the case of a UK mother, Indea Ford, who this week has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison, after being extradited from the States, and standing trial in the UK for taking her two daughters to live in Alaska. Mrs Ford is likely to serve nine months in prison in the UK before being allowed to fly back to the States to return to live with her second husband, two daughters and her toddler child born from her relationship with her second husband. Court order to take children to live abroad On first reading the Indea Ford decision to send a mum of three young children to prison seems really harsh, not only on Mrs Ford but on her children.  A read through the Daily Mail article reveals that Mrs Ford asked her ex-husband for permission to take her two daughters to live in the States and when he refused to agree she applied for a family Court order. All would have been well for her had she been successful in her family Court application but she lost. The family judge decided that Mrs Ford and the children had no prior links to the States and that it was better for the children to stay in the UK. The correct legal option would have been to appeal the decision or wait, build up her legal case, and apply to the family Court again. Mrs Ford didn’t do that. Instead she breached the family Court order saying that one of her daughter’s passports had been lost or stolen so she could get a replacement passport and leave the UK with her two children. Prior to her departure the children had been seeing their dad but after the move to the USA contact stopped. The criminal proceedings and extradition have resulted in the children losing both their mum and dad as the girls are currently being looked after by their step father in the States and haven’t seen their birth dad. Criminal proceedings and prison The criminal trial judge who sentenced the mother to prison time made it clear that he was doing so because Mrs Ford had deliberately breached a family Court order refusing her permission to take the children abroad to live. The family Court document said that Mrs Ford would commit a criminal offence if she disobeyed the family Court order and took the children abroad. Despite the Court warning Mrs Ford went on with her plans to take the children to the States, securing a passport for one of her daughters by lying and saying that the original had been lost or stolen when she knew that the family Court had ordered that each parent keep one daughter’s passport for safekeeping. Reporting restrictions have prevented anyone on reporting why Mrs Ford felt so driven to breach the family Court order and take her daughters to the States but the media reports that she thought her highly acrimonious split from her ex-husband was damaging to the children. After Mrs Ford has served her prison sentence she will be able to return to the States to her second husband and three children but what about the long term harm of the criminal Court proceedings and maternal separation on the children? What about the potential for the children to find it harder to repair their relationship with their birth dad because of the criminal Court case against their mum and their mother’s prison time? Last year there were a number of cases where family judges in the UK took the unusual step of sending a parent to prison for contempt of Court. Jail time is imposed because of the parent’s failure to comply with family Court orders made within child abduction proceedings. In the past if a child was taken to a country outside of the European Union or a country that isn’t a signatory to the Hague convention the parent left in the UK often felt frustrated by the legal remedies to enforce UK family Court orders to recover their child from abroad. After a separation or divorce, and particularly if families have connections to more than one country, one parent may take a child abroad, often back to their country of origin, leaving the child abroad and in the care of their extended family. The parent then returns to the UK without the child to pick up their life again. Sometimes a parent doesn’t even realise that if a child is what is called habitually resident in the UK they can't just take their son or daughter abroad to live without the other parent’s agreement or a UK Court order . When the parent returns to the UK they often plead ignorance of the law and say that they have no control over whether their relatives comply with UK family Court orders and return the child to the UK. The Zubaidy family case is an example of a situation where a family Court has been willing to sentence a parent to jail time for their part in parental child abduction. Mr Zubaidy took his 3 children into Libya, through Tunisia, leaving the children with relatives in Libya. He then returned to the UK and whilst he eventually returned his son said that he couldn’t sort out the return of his 2 daughters. The family Court took a very robust approach and ordered Mr Zubaidy to provide addresses and information to help recover and return the girls to the UK. Mr Zubaidy didn’t obey a number of family Court orders, and to the mother’s frustration and distress, her daughters remain with paternal relatives in Libya. Contempt of Court proceedings were started against the children’s father and the Court was able to conclude that Mr Zubaidy had flouted family Court orders and in August 2017 sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment. When family judges have made robust orders for imprisonment this has resulted in family members abroad cooperating with the UK Court orders and returning children. For any parent caught up in trying to recover their children from abroad getting the other parent imprisoned is the very last resort but can hold the key to the eventual return of their son or daughter. [related_posts] Applying to Court for permission to take children abroad to live The case of Mrs Ford shows just how important it is to not only comply with family Court orders but to do all you can to get it right in the first case. How much easier it would have been for the children if Mrs Ford had been able to persuade the family judge to give her permission to take the children to the States. As a children lawyer , specialising in child abduction and complex children Court cases , I sometimes find that parents question the need for detailed preparation work as they assume they’ll get the Court permission they want without having to detail the background to their separation or research their plans to live abroad. I know just how devastating it can be for a parent to be told ‘’no ‘’ by a Court and preparation is the best chance of getting the order you want. The best advice is to: • Chose a specialist children lawyer who can give you an honest opinion on your likely chances of a successful Court application and can tell you how much information and preparation will be required to maximise the chances of success; • Work with your lawyer – if they tell you that they need information about your relationship it is not salaciousness it is because they need it to help you; • Research where you want to move to – you should look at houses , jobs , health services , schools and of course how contact would work in relation to your proposals and transport times and costs; • Consider the timing of any Court application – sometimes an application should be delayed or in other family circumstances it needs to be pushed through, for example so a child will start senior school in the new country rather than join a new school in a new country mid-term; • If you don’t get the Court decision you want take more legal advice before taking your children abroad. Contact us now for legal help when taking children abroad