Comments for The Family Matters Blog http://www.whd.com.au/familymattersblog The go-to blog for all legal issues related to your family Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:23:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Comment on Stronger laws to deal with international child abduction by Queensland Law Blog http://www.whd.com.au/familymattersblog/2011/11/25/stronger-laws-to-deal-with-international-child-abduction/#comment-10 Queensland Law Blog Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:23:16 +0000 http://www.whd.com.au/familymattersblog/?p=36#comment-10 Thank you for your feedback. This is certainly a difficult and contentious area of family law. Such circumstances are not satisfactory for anyone involved but most particularly the child who is deprived of a relationship with one parent due to the geographical location of the move. Thank you for your feedback. This is certainly a difficult and contentious area of family law. Such circumstances are not satisfactory for anyone involved but most particularly the child who is deprived of a relationship with one parent due to the geographical location of the move.

]]> Comment on Stronger laws to deal with international child abduction by Avram http://www.whd.com.au/familymattersblog/2011/11/25/stronger-laws-to-deal-with-international-child-abduction/#comment-9 Avram Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:43:13 +0000 http://www.whd.com.au/familymattersblog/?p=36#comment-9 Thank you for the excellent article on the new measures on dealing with abductions and the thoughtful exchange in the comments above on steps to prevent them from occurring in the first place. While the Grin and Mellersh cases received considerable media attention because of the mothers' severe mental illness, I have seen first-hand the consequences abductions have on the psyche of children even when the abducting parent is not delusional. It seems to me the new measures are sensibly targeted at addressing the broad number of problems that arise in all abduction cases. Thank you for the excellent article on the new measures on dealing with abductions and the thoughtful exchange in the comments above on steps to prevent them from occurring in the first place. While the Grin and Mellersh cases received considerable media attention because of the mothers’ severe mental illness, I have seen first-hand the consequences abductions have on the psyche of children even when the abducting parent is not delusional. It seems to me the new measures are sensibly targeted at addressing the broad number of problems that arise in all abduction cases.

]]> Comment on Stronger laws to deal with international child abduction by Queensland Law Blog http://www.whd.com.au/familymattersblog/2011/11/25/stronger-laws-to-deal-with-international-child-abduction/#comment-8 Queensland Law Blog Thu, 22 Dec 2011 23:35:05 +0000 http://www.whd.com.au/familymattersblog/?p=36#comment-8 These are certainly two tragic tales and unfortunately there are many more stories like these. In Australia our law says that one parent cannot take the children away to live interstate, overseas, etc without the other parent’s consent. Inevitably this does occur and the parents become embroiled in a bitter battle about where the children should live. Often children will be relocated before the courts become involved, but where matters are already before the court, the parent concerned about the flight risk of another parent must provide the evidence of their concern. Herein lies the problem. What is the level of evidence? Is it a gut feel, a flying comment or is there something more substantial like dual passports, family living overseas or some close connection with another country? If there is psychological counselling, who pays for it and how do you make parties attend? Likewise with supervised visits, who should supervise and where should these visits take place? The court must weigh up the risks and makes a determination on the evidence before it. In the event children are taken to a Hague Convention country, as Australia is a party to that Convention, steps can be taken to have the children returned. The reality is that it is much harder to have children returned from non-Hague Convention countries. Prevention would be ideal, but is sometimes not always possible. These are certainly two tragic tales and unfortunately there are many more stories like these. In Australia our law says that one parent cannot take the children away to live interstate, overseas, etc without the other parent’s consent. Inevitably this does occur and the parents become embroiled in a bitter battle about where the children should live. Often children will be relocated before the courts become involved, but where matters are already before the court, the parent concerned about the flight risk of another parent must provide the evidence of their concern. Herein lies the problem. What is the level of evidence? Is it a gut feel, a flying comment or is there something more substantial like dual passports, family living overseas or some close connection with another country? If there is psychological counselling, who pays for it and how do you make parties attend? Likewise with supervised visits, who should supervise and where should these visits take place? The court must weigh up the risks and makes a determination on the evidence before it. In the event children are taken to a Hague Convention country, as Australia is a party to that Convention, steps can be taken to have the children returned. The reality is that it is much harder to have children returned from non-Hague Convention countries. Prevention would be ideal, but is sometimes not always possible.

]]> Comment on Stronger laws to deal with international child abduction by Alley http://www.whd.com.au/familymattersblog/2011/11/25/stronger-laws-to-deal-with-international-child-abduction/#comment-7 Alley Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:27:07 +0000 http://www.whd.com.au/familymattersblog/?p=36#comment-7 There should be more discussion and training of the court experts as well as judges to better identify situations where there are risks of child abduction. Preventative measures should also include mandated psychological counseling and protected visits.  The Grin case is a primary example. Here is one link to the story, as described at the place where the abduction occurred. http://www.theflorentine.net/articles/article-view.asp?issuetocId=7229 The story describes an abduction by a Harvard-educated lawyer, Marianne Grin, a dual US-Russian citizen who was being divorced in Italy by her husband, a US citizen. After the court found Ms. Grin to suffer from serious psychiatric illness, "paranoid delusions" posing a danger to her children, sole custody of the couple’s four children was given to the father. The court appointed expert and judge, knowing this, did not feel the need to mandate protected visits. The first days Ms. Grin was able to have the children, she abducted them to Russia. The scary thing is that there was a similar case in Germany where the mother, after having been found to be psychology unfit, also with paranoid delusions, abducted her 2 children to Turkey. Ms. Mellersh then sadly committed suicide taking her two poor children with her. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2064002/Tug-love-children-gassed-mother-Turkish-hotel-room.html We need a better system to protect children. There should be more discussion and training of the court experts as well as judges to better identify situations where there are risks of child abduction. Preventative measures should also include mandated psychological counseling and protected visits.  The Grin case is a primary example.
Here is one link to the story, as described at the place where the abduction occurred.
http://www.theflorentine.net/articles/article-view.asp?issuetocId=7229

The story describes an abduction by a Harvard-educated lawyer, Marianne Grin, a dual US-Russian citizen who was being divorced in Italy by her husband, a US citizen. After the court found Ms. Grin to suffer from serious psychiatric illness, “paranoid delusions” posing a danger to her children, sole custody of the couple’s four children was given to the father. The court appointed expert and judge, knowing this, did not feel the need to mandate protected visits. The first days Ms. Grin was able to have the children, she abducted them to Russia. The scary thing is that there was a similar case in Germany where the mother, after having been found to be psychology unfit, also with paranoid delusions, abducted her 2 children to Turkey. Ms. Mellersh then sadly committed suicide taking her two poor children with her.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2064002/Tug-love-children-gassed-mother-Turkish-hotel-room.html
We need a better system to protect children.

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