What To Do When Children Aren’t Returned

In this video, Accredited Specialist in Family Law and Page Provan Managing Director, Bruce Provan discusses a question that is commonly asked around Christmas time, what if the other parent doesn’t return my children? What can I do?

Transcript

My name is Bruce Proven. I’m the Managing Director of Page Provan, Family and Fertility Lawyers. We are a firm of lawyers in central Brisbane who practise exclusively in family and fertility law.

It’s approaching Christmas, and the question we’re sometimes asked at this time of year with children going to the other parent is, what if the other parent doesn’t return my children? What can I do?

And look, it’s not that straightforward, some people think that you can contact the police. But unfortunately, in most cases, the police don’t have power to return children. Police can intervene to keep the peace.

They can also do a welfare check on the children. But in most cases, they can’t return the children for you and if the other parent doesn’t return the children, what’s important is that you contact us as soon as possible so we can advise you of your options.

Now, that may involve an urgent application to court, especially if you think that the other parent may have fled with the children and may not return them, or if you think that the children may be in any danger, it’s important to contact us so that we can get the matter in court as soon as possible, and the court can make an order.

Now, even if there is an order in place to say that the children are to live with you, then it’s still necessary to make an application to court to seek a warrant, and that warrant will be to the federal police to locate the children and have them returned to you as soon as possible and safely.

And if you don’t know where the children are, we can seek orders such as a Commonwealth location order so we can get information from government departments such as Services Australia about where the other parent is. So there the sorts things we can do to assist you.

If there’s no court order in place, that’s not a big problem, because we can still make an application for court on your behalf and try to have that dealt with quickly and seek an order that the children live with you.

So if you don’t have an order, don’t let that concern you too much, because in most cases, we can get the matter moving quickly and get the children back to you. Often times, it’s not necessary to make an application to court.

Oftentimes, we can get in contact with the other parents and make arrangements to have the children returned as soon as possible.

Bruce Proven from Page Proven, Family and Fertility Lawyers.