My Ex Is Breaching Parenting Orders. What Can I Actually Do?

You finally have parenting orders.

You think that means the uncertainty is over.

Then the other parent simply stops following them.

They do not bring the children to changeover. They repeatedly cancel your time. They prevent phone calls. They return the children hours late. Or they make unilateral decisions despite clear orders dealing with those issues.

So what can you actually do?

Parenting orders are Court orders

Once parenting orders are made, the people bound by them are required to comply with them.

A parent cannot simply decide that an order no longer suits them and ignore it.

However, what you should do about a breach depends heavily on what has occurred and why.

Not every breach requires immediate Court proceedings.

What counts as breaching a parenting order?

A contravention can involve intentionally failing to comply with an order or making no reasonable attempt to comply with it.

It can also involve preventing another person from complying with an order or helping somebody else breach it.

Examples might include repeatedly failing to make a child available for ordered time or deliberately interfering with arrangements required under the orders.

The precise wording of your orders matters.

Before alleging a breach, read the actual order rather than relying on what you remember it saying.

What is a “reasonable excuse”?

This is important.

A breach does not automatically mean the Court will impose a consequence.

A person may establish that they had a reasonable excuse for failing to comply.

For example, issues concerning the health or safety of a child can arise.

But simply saying, “the child didn’t want to go” does not automatically resolve the issue.

The circumstances, the child’s age, what the parent did to encourage compliance and any genuine safety concerns may all be relevant.

Should I keep records?

Yes.

If breaches are recurring, keep clear contemporaneous records.

Record dates, times, what the orders required, what actually happened and relevant communications.

Save emails and messages.

Try to keep your communications factual rather than turning every incident into an argument.

If proceedings become necessary six months later, a clear chronology is considerably more useful than trying to reconstruct events from memory.

Can I file a contravention application?

Potentially.

A contravention application asks the Court to deal with an alleged failure to comply with existing orders.

Depending on the circumstances and findings, the Court has a range of powers.

However, contravention proceedings should not simply be used as a weapon every time parents disagree.

They are Court proceedings and need to be approached seriously.

Can I get make-up time?

Depending on the circumstances, the Court can make orders addressing time that has been lost.

The Court also has other options where contraventions are established, depending on the seriousness and circumstances.

What if the orders simply aren’t working anymore?

This is a different issue.

Sometimes repeated conflict is a symptom of parenting orders that no longer fit the child’s circumstances.

Children get older. Schools change. Parents move. Work arrangements change. New risk issues can emerge.

In those circumstances, the real question may not simply be how to punish a breach.

It may be whether the existing parenting arrangements need to be reconsidered.

There are legal requirements governing applications to revisit final parenting orders, so obtain advice about your particular circumstances.

What if my child is at risk?

Safety comes first.

If you genuinely believe a child faces an immediate risk of harm, seek urgent legal advice about the appropriate response.

Do not assume that the existence of parenting orders means there is nothing you can do about a genuine new safety issue.

Equally, allegations of risk should not be made casually as a strategy for avoiding orders.

Focus on the outcome

When a client tells us their ex has breached an order, one of the first questions we ask is:

What do you actually need to happen now?

Do you need the existing orders complied with? Do you need make-up time? Has something changed that means the orders themselves need reconsideration? Is there a new safety issue?

The answer determines the strategy.

Melmark Law represents parents in parenting disputes involving alleged contraventions, non-compliance, family violence and applications to vary existing parenting arrangements.

This article provides general information only and does not constitute legal advice. You should obtain advice about your individual circumstances.