Expertise

Children

Minimizing, the impact of your separation on your children and finding arrangements that are in their best interests are major issues, both at the time of your separation and in the years that follow.

This raises the crucial issues of exercising parental authority, determining the children’s residence arrangements and any maintenance payments.

For its holders, parental authority is a set of rights and duties towards the children, the other parent and third parties. It is usually exercised jointly by both parents. Exceptional circumstances may, however, lead the judge to entrust the exclusive exercise of parental authority to a single parent or to withdraw parental authority from one of its holders.

The children’s residence may be fixed at the home of each parent on an alternating basis or at the home of one of the parents. To determine how the children’s lives should be organised, the judge may order expert reports or social investigations. The judge may also hear your children, who may ask to be heard if they are capable of discernment.

Maintenance, known as a contribution to the upkeep and education of the children, is set according to the resources and expenses of each parent and the needs of the children. It is paid by the parent who owes it to the other parent or, in certain cases, directly to the adult child. It is payable until the end of higher education and until the child earns an income equal to the minimum wage.

We help parents and grandparents to resolve these complex family and psychological issues.

We also offer you our responsiveness and efficiency to assist you before the Children’s Court Judge, in the context of educational assistance measures, when the safety of your children is compromised, and to determine together the best means of protecting them.

We can also assist with guardianship proceedings for under-age children following the death of one or both parents.

The firm’s expertise in this area means that we can advise and assist you in setting up, either amicably or through the courts, the operating arrangements that best meet the needs and interests of your children.