Family courts lockdown is taking its toll
Spouses stop child access and supports
OPPORTUNISTIC spouses are taking advantage of a huge coronavirus backlog in the family court by shunning child support payments or refusing child access.
Hundreds of spouses are being left in the dark as the family courts are only seeing a limited number of cases because of the pandemic, solicitors have said.
One solicitor said it was a ‘red-hot issue’ in the legal profession, while the wife of one prominent businessman said she and her children have been left without any maintenance payments for months. ‘We were told that we won’t be back in court at all over the summer – meanwhile, we have no money and no income, even though my husband is supposed to be paying €8,000 a month,’ she said.
The family courts are only hearing emergency cases – leaving many without any redress when a spouse refuses to cooperate.
The main problems include parents refusing to hand over children in shared custody cases and hostile spouses using the slowdown in the family court to refuse to comply with court orders.
Last week, the family court recognised that there have been delays and said it would add child-access ‘Burning issue’: Robert Bourke cases to its list of emergency cases.
Robert Bourke, a partner and owner of HOMS Assist Solicitors in Cork, Limerick and Dublin, said family law is currently the ‘burning issue’ in the legal profession.
‘You have big problems with parents who have broken up and we find that one of them is being denied access to children. That is the red-hot issue going on at the moment, as well as a lack of payments, and everything else,’ he said, adding that some former spouses are taking advantage of the pandemic to withhold payments.
‘Sometimes you’re dealing with volatile situations,’ he said.
The wife of a wealthy businessman said the delay has created a huge crisis for her and her children. ‘He makes more than €1million a year and here we have child support payments. He could easily pay but he doesn’t want to,’ she said.
The woman’s non-payment case was last heard in February and adjourned to April for the preparation of affidavits. That has been postponed indefinitely, and her solicitor told her she would likely have to wait until at least September before her case is heard.
‘At the moment, we are living at a friend’s house and I have no income at all. The court where our case is heard is very big; I don’t see why there couldn’t be social distancing in the court,’ she said.
Gerry Curran, a spokesman for the Courts Service, said the family courts have already announced this month that categories of cases that count as emergencies will be expanded. He said the courts were hearing urgent domestic violence cases at the start of the pandemic, but this has been expanded this week. ‘The judges are hearing cases by video – we have had divorces even in the last week. But cases had been adjourned if they are not considered urgent,’ he said.
Areas being heard by the family law courts include applications for protection orders and return hearings of interim barring order cases.
The Courts Service said that breach of maintenance or denial of access to children that occurred during the emergency period, or applications for temporary guardianship orders, will also be heard.
It said that remote hearings may be conducted in some courts.
‘He could easily pay but doesn’t’ ‘We have had divorces’