We represented the father in this case where the mother had sole custody of the children and the father had access rights every second weekend. While the father went to the childcare center to pick them up and start his access rights, it was announced that the children had changed schools and were no longer serving. on duty for three days. The father was stunned because he had no idea where the children were and at what school they had been changed since it was done without his consent. The mother had therefore not respected the father’s right to parental authority.
Indeed, it is not because one parent has a higher child care time than the other, that all the decisions relating to the children are transferred to him. Parental authority remains joint and is not influenced by the on-call time.
The father contacted us via Me Isabelle Rego, a lawyer in family law practicing in the law firm Vallelogna, to mention the situation. The latter then joined the mother, who was standing alone at that moment, to agree on a place of exchange so that the father could at least have access rights, but the mother did not collaborate. A trial on the choice of school was therefore set. The father asked that the children return to their old school while the mother wanted them to stay at their new school. Before the judge, Me Isabelle Rego was able to put into evidence the mother’s total denial of the father’s parental authority, which is a fundamental right in family law, without any valid reason, since it was only a question of the mother’s move. In addition, it was submitted that the children were not doing well at their new school. The judge acknowledged that the mother had made a unilateral decision and that there was no urgency in her decision-making that justified the change of school. So we won the case because the judge ordered that the children would return to their old school as soon as they started school.
Not all firm clients are successful. See note.