Father’s Rights After Separation

Fathers get 50 50 custody in Australia more regularly than you think.

According to the Australian institute of family studies, only 3% of court-ordered parenting agreements involve no contact between children and their father, compared with 9% of the general separated population.

The study showed that 21% of parents had shared custody of their children.

Researchers found that children of divorced parents benefited from spending time, including sleeping over, at both parent’s homes.

The recent study also showed that when the children became adults, the ones who had the best relationships with their parents were the ones who spent equal time at both their mother’s home and their father’s home from a young age.

The study was published in the journal: Psychology, Public Policy and Law and is called 25 Scientific Tips for Raising Happy (and Healthy) Kids.

Fathers should be spending regular time with their children, which should increase as the children get older.

Fathers have the same rights as mothers when it comes to accessing children. It is important to distinguish who is making decisions for the children and that the primary care of the child is consulted when one parent is seeking access to their child.

A father can gain custody of his child in one of two ways.

1.  If the parents are able to come to an agreement that is going to occur with the children then a father may document this in a set of consent orders or a parenting arrangement.
2.  If the parents are not able to come to an agreement then the matter will go to court and a judge will determine how much time each parent will spend with the child. A father will then need to show that it is in the best interests of the child for the child to spend time with him.
3. Keep in mind that less than 3% of matters end up in court, meaning that there is a good chance it will not be you!

There is no set age for when a father will be able to obtain a 50 50 arrangement with his child.

Most judges will not consider a 50 50 arrangement until the child is at least 4 or 5 years old.

This is because most judges believe that a child should spend more time with the child’s primary carer when the child is between 0 to 5 years of age.

However, there are cases where a 50 50 arrangement may work for some children aged 1 – 4 years.

The basic rule in Australia is that it is the child’s right to have access to both moms and dads.

There’s a rule of equal and shared parental responsibility that both the mother and father share unless there is an order determining otherwise. this means that both parents are responsible for the major decisions in relation to the child.

Both the mum as well as the dad have a right to care for the welfare of their offspring as well as being accountable for their upbringing by supplying them with food, shelter, and clothes.

There are many people that believe that there is a bias against fathers in the family court. Sometimes this results in fathers giving up or conceding before they even try and fight for more time with their children.

Due to social dynamics, it is extremely common for the mother to be considered the primary carer of the children, as the mother normally takes time off of work to look after children.

Sometimes, it could be the case that a father is considered as the primary carer of a child.

There is no bias against fathers as a gender – however, there is a preference for a court to try and appease and side with the primary carer of a child.

Fathers frequently face a number of custody issues when they want more time with their children.

Sometimes a mother will want to establish that a father is a risk to the children, and that therefore time should be withheld between the father and the child.

This is often something that we deal with at our firm, and we have a high success rate of establishing that fathers are not a risk to their own children.

Allegations can make fathers feel like they do not deserve to spend time with their children, despite the fact that they are loving fathers who only want to have a steady relationship with their kids.

Custody of children means the arrangements that are in place for the children to spend time with the mother and father. Justice Family Lawyers can help you seek an increase to the custody of children to ensure you are spending substantial time with your child.

Some of the results we have achieved for our fathers

• Child custody disputes
  • We act on cases where fathers are seeking an increase of time with their children. We constantly face and overcome issues such as gatekeeping, gaslighting, abuse of process, false police reports, and violence orders.
• Primary custody of the child
  • We have had cases where the father has maintained his position as the primary carer of the children, even when the mother was trying to falsely establish that she was the primary carer.
  • We have run cases where the primary carer was changed from the mother to the father, as the mother was found to have been abusing drugs and alcohol.
• Obtain visitation when they have been denied visitation by the child’s mother
  • We have obtained over night time for dads who have been denied visitation by mothers who have alleged that the dad is abusing drugs and alcohol.
  • Dads that have been accused of being violent or having mental health issues, we have achieved results obtaining overnight time with their children.
• Prevent the relocation of a child
  • We have prevented children from being relocated to other suburbs and overseas.
  • We act in cases where we have been required to obtain recovery orders from the court to locate the child and to bring the child back to the father
• Assist with the relocation of a child
  • We assisted a dad who wanted to relocate from NSW to Queensland with his children.
• Weekend visitations and sleepovers
  • We have gotten dads overnight time with their kids, despite being denied this from the children’s mother.
• Help with making major long-term decisions for the child
  • We have assisted dads obtain a say in relation to children’s education, schools they attend, and religions that they observe.