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Hello,
I'm wondering if there is anyone out there that can give me some advice, please.
In brief: I'm a British mum (with French nationality by a previous marriage) and a lone parent.
My daughter, now 15 yrs old, has dual nationality: French & British.
Her father is French and lives in France. We weren't married but went to court in France to sort out visitation rights & child maintenance before I returned to the UK with my daughter in 1997.
He paid child maintenance regularly until about 7 years ago, and hasn't been in touch or paid a penny since. ...he's alive and well, married, and working full time as an engineer.
He stopped paying when he brought a court case against me in France for not sending my daughter to France to see him for the holidays in 1997....she was only 4 at the time and she did not want to travel on her own.
The French Court decided that I was in the wrong, put out a warrant for my arrest (never enforced, the UK Home Office said I did not have to comply), and said he did not have to make any more child maintenance payments to me.
As far as Rights of the Child go, he is as much responsible as I am for "the upbringing, development...and a standard of living adequate" for my daughter's development.
I know that there is a European Maintenance Regulation but I think that the UK may have opted out for the time being.
I am having difficulty finding out if and how I can proceed with a court claim for maintenance.
It's been hard enough struggling on my own to make ends meet since my daughter was born nearly 16 years ago, but now I can no longer work because of health problems, and our financial situation is dire.
My brilliant A* pupil daughter will be going to uni in a couple of years, with all the expense that that will involve and I think it's time that her father starts to pull his weight financially. Can anyone please help?
I'm wondering if there is anyone out there that can give me some advice, please.
In brief: I'm a British mum (with French nationality by a previous marriage) and a lone parent.
My daughter, now 15 yrs old, has dual nationality: French & British.
Her father is French and lives in France. We weren't married but went to court in France to sort out visitation rights & child maintenance before I returned to the UK with my daughter in 1997.
He paid child maintenance regularly until about 7 years ago, and hasn't been in touch or paid a penny since. ...he's alive and well, married, and working full time as an engineer.
He stopped paying when he brought a court case against me in France for not sending my daughter to France to see him for the holidays in 1997....she was only 4 at the time and she did not want to travel on her own.
The French Court decided that I was in the wrong, put out a warrant for my arrest (never enforced, the UK Home Office said I did not have to comply), and said he did not have to make any more child maintenance payments to me.
As far as Rights of the Child go, he is as much responsible as I am for "the upbringing, development...and a standard of living adequate" for my daughter's development.
I know that there is a European Maintenance Regulation but I think that the UK may have opted out for the time being.
I am having difficulty finding out if and how I can proceed with a court claim for maintenance.
It's been hard enough struggling on my own to make ends meet since my daughter was born nearly 16 years ago, but now I can no longer work because of health problems, and our financial situation is dire.
My brilliant A* pupil daughter will be going to uni in a couple of years, with all the expense that that will involve and I think it's time that her father starts to pull his weight financially. Can anyone please help?
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