A: At the moment, there is nothing that the Police can do to uplift your son from you.  The only way that the Police would be able to do this is if there was a Parenting Order in place.  Without this, the Police are powerless to do anything.  If you have serious concerns that your ex-partner may try to take your son, I would strongly recommend that you contact our office and discuss the appropriate steps to prevent this from happening.    

A: We would need to look at the Trust documents and discuss further the details around the purchase of each property.  However, we can lodge a notice of claim against the properties to protect your interests in the meantime.  If you would like to discuss this further, please phone the office and make an appointment to speak to someone.

 A: Section 21F of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 (“Act”) sets out a list of requirements with which an agreement must comply in order for it to be valid under the Act.  We would be happy to discuss these requirements with you further and prepare an agreement on the basis of the agreement reached between you and your husband, bearing in mind that your husband will need to obtain independent legal advice from another lawyer.  If this is something that you would like to discuss further, please contact our office to make an appointment.

A:    Where a child lives is a guardianship issue which ultimately means that both guardians must be consulted, and consent to, any relocation before it takes place.  If you and your ex-partner cannot agree on where your daughter is to live, the onus is on your ex-partner to make an application to the Court to relocate.  However, there are steps that you can take now to prevent your daughter from leaving the country without your consent.  If you would like to discuss these further, contact our office and make an appointment to speak to someone.

 A.     There certainly can be special rules regarding relationship property division when the marriage is one of your length.  It will also depend on when your relationship started.  If the relationship is less than 3 years, it is one of “short duration” and some property is divided with different considerations.  This can be an uncertain area – please call for an appointment to discuss.

A.     You may be able to apply to the Family Court for spousal maintenance (now known as domestic maintenance), which is money payable by one spouse to meet the other’s reasonable needs. Parties are only entitled to maintenance in certain limited circumstances. Call us to discuss your situation.

Q.     I am a solo mother on the Domestic Purposes Benefit. The father of my child has refused to sign the birth certificate, and WINZ has reduced my benefit until I can provide proof of who the father is. Can you help me?

A.     We can apply on your behalf for a paternity order, and legal aid is available for paternity proceedings. Contact us on (09) 263 6953 to make an appointment.

A.     Diversion is a scheme that means your son’s charges could be diverted away from the court system.  There are certain requirements to qualify and you can sometimes try and negotiate with the diversion sergeant as to whether your son should be able to receive diversion or not.  As the charges are low level, and he has no history, he does not qualify for legal aid.  We can take this kind of work on reduced rates in some cases so ring us and make an appointment.

A.     Yes, this is a guardianship as well as parenting issue.  If you have a historical file in the family court, no matter how old, its always good to have this for your new lawyer to see.  We can assist you in deciding what action to take and whether you need to go back to the family court again.

A.     Yes we can certainly assist you.  There are several options for you and sometimes CYFS can assist with funding some legal fees involved in this process.  We can talk to you about your options to apply for a parenting order (which you will need to have special permission from the court to do) and to be a guardian.  Call us for an appointment to discuss.