I am also interested in any info about supervised visits being given by the courts and why. I am hopeful that the court will stop these come April as that is the only way my son has seen his baby daughter since june 2009 and he has only had about 6 visits. He has had many complaints about the contact service and we do not know if his complaints will go against us in court. Any info greatly accepted.

Hi again Rabbit,

Have you read the forum Separated parent's(childrens health and development issues)under the heading Worst form of child abuse ?

It discusses this subject and is an interesting read.

I read the case you quoted , it seems the father would have to get up in court  and express his bad opinion of you and say he would never let you see them again if the children lived with him, to get this judgement. Most people are sane enough to say what is expected of them in court!!

I have a similar situation ,but I have the children also witnessing Family Violence so there are more cases that apply to me but not alot so far in my research...most relate to physical or sexual abuse.

It is interesting because if you could have grounds for supervised visitation due to this only I would have a case as I have a Family Consultants report which attests to the fact the father is doing little to stop the fathers partner disparaging the mother in front of the children. It is then reported the father conceded he should have intervened.

I think that is the problem you face is ,that even if you can prove it has happened it would only take the other parent to say they wont do it again and thats the end of the matter??

I have had this going on for 2 years so maybe my personal experience can give you some encouragement.

My kids 13, 10 and 7 would come home EVERY weekend saying things that had been said by the father and his partner about my character and lies about things I had done and said. eg The new partner would dissolve into tears and when the kids would ask what was wrong she would say " your mother is such a mean bad person she sends me nasty text messages and hates me and your dad and and I are breaking up because she has caused us so many problems".

My resolve from the beginning was no matter how strong the urge to defend yourself is ..only say "that is untrue" but never get into an in depth discussion of the accusations and how each one is wrong and why.

I would simply say "that is sad she feels that way ,I did not do those things but no I wont prove that by discussing this with you it is an adult issue". -My 13yr old would ask me to prove it to him as he said he didn't know what to believe.

Or if the children would say  "we feel sorry for you because dad really hates you and says mean things about you" i would ALWAYS reply "well dont feel sorry for me , I am not angry with your dad in fact I will always be grateful to him and I am SO glad I met him because if I hadnt I wouldn't have you kids , I would never change the situation or be angry with him no matter what he says because he gave me you guys and you are the best things that have ever happened to me."

I  reasoned that the kids are perceptive and would be able to judge characters and the truth would prevail, eventually!

Well this is exactly what has happened (it took a year and a half mind you)but  I have come off 'smelling like roses' and his behaviour has backfired and the children now have little respect for him (I think if I had said things back or showed I was so upset it would have caused more trauma for the kids and not made who was in the right so clear to them)

When children learn the lesson of who their father is from their own observations it is much more profound and means they can never turn around as adults and say we don't get along with dad because of what you said or the way you felt about him.

I have much more research to do so I will keep an eye out for anything that applies to you.

I wish you good luck.

Oh thanks for that beautifulDAY, I am a bit behind, only just spotted it. I will have a look at the cases you have pointed out. I trawled through a whole bunch and only found one that was relevant to my specific interest so far, but still looking. This one interested me -  the reason for supervised access was to protect the children from denigration of their mother by their father:

Atef Mekhail & Nagat Habib
FamCA 88 (29 August 1995)

 Hi Rabbit, I have found a few interesting cases about supervised visitation

•      King & King (No.3) 2009 FamCA 1217 (9 December 2009)
•      Beasley & Andreopolis 2009 FamCA 567 (12 June 2009)
•      Dalca & Hamid 2009 FamCA 1256 (22 December 2009)
•      Arman & Arman 2008 FamCA 923 (31 October 2008)  - Interestingly this case in parra 151 of the 'Reason for judgement'  says:

     " The reality is that the children have turned off from their father as a result of his conduct. In the circumstances the separation of the children from their father is not something which will have any adverse effects"  the children born 1995 and 1998.   Never heard that one before!!

   Rabbit I am interested in this subject to so can you post anything you have found?  Thanks

Oh ok, I see. I'm starting to get somewhere now on that approach! Thanks very much.

Guest said

The Court is all about appearance and the mothers wishes not what has occurred unless the father did the wrong.

justin

 
Justin, The court is far from being solely concerned about appearance and the mothers wishes. The court is looking at what they establish as being in the best interests of the child, they are the ones that we do ask to adjudicate our differences. To think that the courts decisions are solely based on gender is a very big error. One only has to look at the orders made in contested trials to see the ratio of orders between mothers and fathers.

Rabbit, it is a trial and error on the searches on austlii it is a site where you just have to keep trying different search terms. Frustrating I know, but you will find one search term that then lets you keep bouncing from judgment to judgment. 

Thank you for that link. I have tried the site, and used several different terms, but I can't seem to find anything specific. It may just be my inexperience, but I seem to be wading through enourmous amounts of legislation and finding nothing of the kind. I will keep trying, but any ideas are appreciated.   

You can do a number of searches at www.austlii.edu.au just try different search words

Hi all.

I am trying to find out the basis for court rulings of supervised access, and I'm not sure how to go about finding that kind of info. I've tried searching the legislation from a few different angles, but haven't had any luck yet. Could anyone tell me if there is a particular section of the FL act that pertains to this, and if so, how could I go about finding it?

Thanks