location

Recovery and Location Orders

  • Courts
  • October 30, 2023

In parenting matters, most of you will be familiar with orders relating to “parental responsibility,” “lives with” and “spends time with.”  However, there are other important orders the court is able to make upon the application of a party.

What Is a Recovery Order?

A recovery order is an order made by the court which requires a child to be returned to your care if the other party is withholding the child.  The following people are eligible to make such an application:

  1. A person who the child lives with spends time with or communicates with as stated in a parenting order;
  2. A person who has parental responsibility for the child in a parenting order;
  3. A grandparent of the child; or
  4. A person concerned with the care, welfare, and development of a child.

In their usual terms, officers of the Australian Federal Police or officers of State and Territory Police are authorised or directed by the court to find, recover and deliver the child to your care.

A recovery order is usually valid for 12 months from the date of issue by the court.

Whether or not you will be successful in obtaining a recovery order, will depend on the circumstances of your case.

What Is Location or Information Order?

If at the time of making an application to the court for a recovery order, you do not know the whereabouts of the child, you can seek what is known as a location or information order. These are orders requiring a Commonwealth Government department, such as Centrelink to give the court information on the child’s whereabouts if known.

What Do I Do Now?

If you wish to urgently make an application for a recovery order, or you have been served with documents in which the other party has initiated proceedings seeking a recovery order for a child who is in your care, please contact us to make an appointment today.

Obtaining advice at the outset is critical in these applications.

We find out what matters for you and your family. Please contact us to make an appointment (02) 4369 6838 or email enquiries@coppertreefamilylaw.com.au. We are conveniently located in Erina.

court-order

High Court Decision – June 19th 2019

  • Courts
  • July 14, 2023
High court decision

On 19 June 2019, the High Court of Australia handed down a land mark decision which turns on the definition of “parent” under the Family Law Act (“the Act”). Although in the general course of matters, the parents of a child, for the purposes of the legislation, are easily identifiable. Sometimes, and particularly where artificial insemination is involved, it is not always straight forward.

In this matter of Masson & Parsons, a man donated sperm to a woman, with the intention that he would support and care for the child. There was no doubt that the man was the biological father. However, was he a “parent” of the child by legal definition and therefore entitled to seek relief in the Family Court in respect of parenting orders?

At the time of trial, which was some years after the donation of sperm, the court found the man had an ongoing role of financial support, health, education, general welfare and had an extremely close and secure attachment with the child.

Although the Judge at first instance decided the man did not qualify as a parent under section 60H of the Act (the section which provides rules in respect of the parentage of children born of artificial conception procedures), Her Honour did go on to find that he was a parent within the “ordinary meaning of the word.”

On appeal, the Full Court of the Family Court found that the father was not a parent by virtue of the Status of Children Act, which expressly states the man is not a parent as a result of the artificial insemination.

https://coppertreefamilylaw.com.au/45th-family-court-anniversary/Ultimately, the High Court agreed with the trial Judge and found the man was a parent within the “ordinary meaning of the word” and thus he was entitled to seek relief from the Family Court in respect of parenting orders.