{"id":3510,"date":"2021-03-19T02:37:26","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T02:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanickilawyers.com.au\/?p=3510"},"modified":"2021-03-19T02:37:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T02:37:28","slug":"think-before-you-breach-could-you-be-in-breach-of-parenting-orders-if-you-are-trying-to-protect-your-child-from-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanickilawyers.com.au\/think-before-you-breach-could-you-be-in-breach-of-parenting-orders-if-you-are-trying-to-protect-your-child-from-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Think before you breach: Could you be in breach of parenting Orders if you are trying to protect your child from COVID?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>COVID-19 travel restrictions and\nsocial distancing orders have affected families across Australia. Particularly,\nfor families with court-issued parenting orders requiring travel, it may not be\nreasonably practicable to follow these orders during this time. However, unless\nthe contravention of an order falls under the \u2018reasonable excuse\u2019 definition in\nsection 70NAE <em>Family Law Act 1975<\/em>, serious sanctions may be imposed against\nthe parent. As this section is primarily concerned with protecting the child or\nparent\u2019s health and safety, the parent must reasonably believe the\ncontravention was necessary to provide protection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was the central feature of <em>Kardos\n&amp; Harmon <\/em>[2020], where a mother contravened an order requiring her to travel\ninterstate to bring the child to the father during the pandemic. The Court held\nthe mother\u2019s concerns for the child\u2019s health and effect of border restrictions,\nwhich would require herself and the child to self-isolate for two weeks,\nconstituted a reasonable excuse under section 70NAE(4)(a\u2013b). This decision was\ninfluenced by <em>Riberio &amp; Wright <\/em>[2020] at [6], which noted that the\nhealth, safety and well-being of children and families is the most important\nconsideration during COVID-19. Therefore, the court will balance the importance\nof a child receiving emotional support of both parents, and mitigating risks of\nthe child coming into contact with the virus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the decision in <em>Pandell\n&amp; Walburg (No. 2) <\/em>[2020] illustrates a situation where the mother had\nevidence that the child\u2019s pre-existing health concern increased their risk of\nadverse reaction, should they contract COVID-19. This constituted a reasonable\nexcuse to disallow the child to spend time with the father, breaching court\norders. However, once updated evidence provided that the child was not at a\ngreater risk, the mother no longer had reasonable excuse to breach the orders. This\ncase demonstrates how a family\u2019s individual circumstances play a very\ninfluential role in determining whether a reasonable excuse exists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, if COVID-19\nrestrictions are preventing you from complying with your parenting orders, you\nmust ensure you have a \u2018reasonable excuse\u2019 to do so, based upon your individual\nsituation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our specialist law team at Sanicki Lawyers can consider your personal circumstances and advise you on whether you have a reasonable excuse for contravening your court orders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Critically, &nbsp;a contravention application by an unhappy\nparent may still be dismissed by the Court \u2013 even in cases of a breach of\nOrders &#8211; should the application be \u2018petty and unwarranted\u2019, as in <em>Adam &amp;\nTan (2019)<\/em>. In this case, the mother\u2019s contravention effected from genuine\nmiscommunication, resulting in a mistake. The application was dismissed because\nthe mother had taken steps to remedy the situation once becoming aware of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are concerned about complying\nwith family law parenting Orders because of Covid-19, or if the other parent of\nyour child (or children) are breaching parenting Orders due to Covid-19, then\ncontact Stephanie Hope, Senior Associate Family Lawyer and Head of Family Law\nat Sanicki Lawyers for legal advice and representation today, by calling 03\n9510 8999, or emailing stephanie@sanickilawyers.com.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COVID-19 travel restrictions and social distancing orders have affected families across Australia. Particularly, for families with court-issued parenting orders requiring travel, it may not be reasonably practicable to follow these orders during this time. However, unless the contravention of an order falls under the \u2018reasonable excuse\u2019 definition in section 70NAE Family Law Act 1975, serious &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sanickilawyers.com.au\/think-before-you-breach-could-you-be-in-breach-of-parenting-orders-if-you-are-trying-to-protect-your-child-from-covid\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[145,146,156,184,147,154,151,152,155,150,149,148,153],"class_list":{"0":"post-3510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-best-interests-of-child","9":"tag-best-interests-of-children","10":"tag-change-family-law-orders","11":"tag-covid","12":"tag-family-law-litigation","13":"tag-final-orders","14":"tag-paramount-consideration","15":"tag-paramountcy-principle","16":"tag-recent-family-law-cases","17":"tag-rice-asplund","18":"tag-rice-and-asplund","19":"tag-significant-change-in-cirucumstance","20":"tag-vary-parenting-orders","21":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Think before you breach: Could you be in breach of parenting Orders if you are trying to protect your child from COVID? - Sanicki Lawyers Melbourne<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Think before you breach: Could you be in breach of parenting Orders if you are trying to protect your child from COVID? - Sanicki Lawyers Melbourne\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"COVID-19 travel restrictions and social distancing orders have affected families across Australia. Particularly, for families with court-issued parenting orders requiring travel, it may not be reasonably practicable to follow these orders during this time. However, unless the contravention of an order falls under the \u2018reasonable excuse\u2019 definition in section 70NAE Family Law Act 1975, serious &hellip; Continued\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sanickilawyers.com.au\/think-before-you-breach-could-you-be-in-breach-of-parenting-orders-if-you-are-trying-to-protect-your-child-from-covid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sanicki Lawyers Melbourne\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-19T02:37:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-19T02:37:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sanickilawyers.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/music-banner.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"769\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sanicki Lawyers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sanicki Lawyers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sanickilawyers.com.au\/think-before-you-breach-could-you-be-in-breach-of-parenting-orders-if-you-are-trying-to-protect-your-child-from-covid\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sanickilawyers.com.au\/think-before-you-breach-could-you-be-in-breach-of-parenting-orders-if-you-are-trying-to-protect-your-child-from-covid\/\",\"name\":\"Think before you breach: Could you be in breach of parenting Orders if you are trying to protect your child from COVID? 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