Family Court order

[greendream]

Hi All,

We are looking to emigrate with my teenage daughter due to my fiance being offered an amazing job opportunity abroad. We have no family around us in the UK and my daughter's father lives abroad and has very limited contact with our daughter. He also does not contribute financially to her upbringing or have any involvement in her day to day care.

My ex is refusing to respond to my correspondence about this situation so I know the next step is a court order.

Do you think it necessary to pay a solicitor to assist? I feel this is a fairly cut and dry case as surely we cannot be bound to living in the UK just because her father "might" want to visit sometime? I don't even think we can go down the mediation route as my ex isn't living in the UK?

Any advice is appreciated!

Many thanks.

[Lola49]

No I don't, I don't have legal training or anything but you should do it on your own you sound like you know what youre doing, if it transpires you need to seek advice from a solicitor in the future you could at that stage

[Peridot]

Hi Greendream,

You mention your ex has limited contact with your daughter. What does that mean? Does he call/ write or actually come and see her albeit infrequently?
Where does he live and would the distance be much greater from him to travel to see her than it is from where he is to the UK?

I would have said why bother getting his consent if he won't respond, however, he could cause problems on boarding the plane if he really wanted to be difficult, which wouldn't be helpful.

Maybe write to him stating you are going to be moving, you'd like to deal with this by way of consent but if you don't hear from him you will have no option but to apply to the Court for an Order allowing the move.

If the situation is as straightforward as you imply in your post then you may well be able to deal with this on your own with little reason to instruct lawyers to deal, although there is never any harm getting an initial advice from a specialist, beforehand.

You do need to try and find out if your ex has moved as you will have to demonstrate that you have effected service of any Court papers on him if the need arises. As he is out of the jurisdiction there are different timescales too so this needs to be checked.

Even if he responds refusing to give consent I believe a Court would be hard pushed to refuse an order allowing the move bearing in mind the amount of contact they have had to date by the sounds of it. No doubt your daughter has an opinion on the move and is happy about it? Provided you confirm that you will encourage contact from your daughter to her father it would be difficult for the Court to refuse.

I'm sure you know the process but this may give you a few pointers that may help: https://www.iflg.uk.com/sites/defaul...relocation.pdf and

https://www.iflg.uk.com/sites/default/files/child_relocation.pdf

I'm making no recommendation of the firm who produced this leaflet and have had no dealing with them, but thought the leaflet may give you some pointers in this situation.