Family Law: Obligations under a Parenting Order

Continuing on our topic of parenting orders, here we will discuss the legal obligations that you have once a parenting order has been made.

The most crucial thing to remember is that you must do everything a parenting order says. However, you cannot merely be passive in following a parenting order. Rather, you must take positive action, including taking all reasonable steps to ensure that the order is put into effect.

You must also positively encourage your children to comply with the orders. For example: if there is a parenting order in place that specifies that your children are to spend time with another party, you need to ensure that that the children are available, but must also positively encourage them to go and spend time with the other party.

If the parenting order provides that the child or children are to spend time with, live with, or communicate with a person, or a person is to have parental responsibility for a child, then it is a breach of the parenting order to send the child from Australia without written consent. In fact, it is actually an offence punishable of imprisonment for up to three years.

If the parenting order provides that two or more people have equal shared parental responsibility, any decision about a major long-term issue in relation to a child or children must be made jointly. This includes issues like where the child or children will go to school. In these circumstances, each person must consult with the other person and make a genuine effort to reach a joint decision.

The parenting order remains in force until a new parenting order or parenting plan changes it in some way. See our next blog post for more about changing a parenting order.

If you have a family law matter, concerns about how to get a family law property settlement or questions about family law and parenting orders in NSW and want to find out more please do not hesitate to contact us on 9688 6023 or email us at info@franklegal.com.au.

This article is provided to the reader for general information. It is not legal advice. It was written by Karla Elias and edited by Andrea Spencer.

More from the blog:

Importance of Court Orders

Enforcing Parenting Orders

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