Stay Where You Are!

The Court of Appeal has issued a ruling relating to residence orders that will have implications for a number of divorced couples.

The case dealt with a child whose divorced parents had a shared residence order over her.

The girl’s mother wished to move from London to Chew Magna, near Bristol, where she had been offered a job. The girl’s father, a Serb, claimed the move would seriously interfere with his role in her upbringing and that it was part of a plan by the mother to disrupt his relationship with his daughter.

Hearing an appeal against the original decision, Lord Justice Wall said, “In each case what the court has to do is to examine the underlying factual matrix, and to decide in all the circumstances of the case whether or not it is in the child’s interest to relocate with the parent who wishes to move.”

In the view of the Court, the father had played a substantial role in his daughter’s life and the move was not in the girl’s best interests. The fact that the residence order was a shared one as opposed to a sole residence order did not alter the way the Court had to consider the issues.

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