The court may restrict your parental access rights, or, in rare cases, totally prohibit access to your child.
Appealing the court’s decision
Your access rights may only be decided upon by a court of general jurisdiction (department for family matters). If your access rights are restricted you can appeal it to a higher level court (the Higher Court). The procedure and time-limits for the appeal should be indicated in the lower court’s decision.
Application
In your application to the court, you should:
- explain that exercising parental access rights (with minimal or no restrictions at all) would be in your child’s best interests. In doing so you should describe all the circumstances that are important in proving your claim
- if you believe that you are being discriminated against, indicate that your parental access rights are being restricted only due to characteristics that you possess, such as your sexual orientation, age, religious beliefs, political affiliation, national or ethnic origin or other similar grounds
important Restrictions on parental access rights based solely on one of these grounds will violate the prohibition against discrimination.
- add all relevant documents that substantiate your request, if there are any
You can learn more about how to prepare your application in the Non-Contentious Civil Procedure Act.
Court’s decision
After examining your claim, the higher court will decide whether the restrictions on your parental access rights should be lifted or reduced. In such case, the court will restore your parental access rights to what they were previously or reduce the applied restrictions.
Requesting a reassessment of restrictions on parental access rights
You may ask the court to reassess the situation and annul or reduce restrictions on your parental access rights if, after a certain time, the circumstances on which these restrictions were based have changed.
Application
In your application to the court you should:
- indicate the reasons why the restriction on your parental access rights should be changed (what has changed since the last court decision?)
- explain that exercising parental access rights (with reduced or no restrictions at all) would be in your child’s best interests. In doing so, you should describe all the circumstances that are important in proving your claim
- add relevant documents that substantiate your request, if there are any
Court’s decision
After examining your application, the Orphan’s Court will decide whether to annul or reduce the restrictions on your parental access rights.