Recent Decision

In these techonologically advanced times one is never too far from the latest information. Most nights, at about nine or ten o'clock, the ipad announces an email has come in. Sometimes it is clients, but mostly it is an update to lawyers on recent developments in the law.

Last nights email included a summary about a case where a father appealed a decision that the mother be allowed to relocate with two children of the relationship two hours away from his residence (a town in which the mother had lived with the children after separation).

The case is called

Muldoon & Carlyle [2012] FamCAFC 135

and can be found on the internet and should be read if you are thinking of relocating and have to consider children and a parent that needs to spend time with them.

Is is interesting to read that part of the fathe's appeal related to the fact that his counsel was not allowed to pursue questioning of the mother's motivation of relocating. If you read the appeal judgement you will see that the mother gave evidence that she could not continue to live in the small town she was living in as it was like living in a fish bowl (what a great description). She went on to describe how her ex husband had a lot of family in town and she felt as though she was under scrutiny and talked about all the time. All very valid reasons one would have thought.

It is difficult to see where the father's motivation lay. After all the move was only two hours away and not twenty. True it is there was to a small reduction in his time with the children but when this is averaged out over ones own lifetime it would pale into inisginficance.

Needless to say that the father's appeal failed and it was held the mother was free to move whereever she chose.

One of our writers points out the story has a happy ending as lawyers got paid. However, we are sure all of you would agree that the money spent on lawyers would have/should have been spent  on the children (we wonder if it ever crossed the father's mind to simply take the children on a trip around the world instead of going to court).

We urge you to read the Judgment (and others) if you are in a similiar predicament, and perhaps pause for a moment or two before rushing off to court.