Kinship rights

Charlotte presented to one of our family lawyers on duty as a FASS lawyer on a Friday. She was a kinship carer for a three-year-old child and had cared for the child since he was a few months’ old due to the parents’ inability to provide appropriate care. During the parents’ relationship, and when they had care of the child, Child Protection was involved due to severe family violence and neglect of the child. The child’s father had moved overseas shortly after separation and had not been involved with the child since that time. Charlotte did not have any formal orders giving her parental responsibility for the child. Unfortunately, the child has severe and ongoing health issues, the child required critical surgery on the Monday. However, Charlotte’s consent to the surgery alone was insufficient to meet the hospital’s legal requirements. The child’s mother had relocated interstate shortly before the surgery was due to take place.

PCLC’s FASS lawyer swiftly began preparing an urgent Application for Consent Orders and a proposed Minute of Consent Orders that would provide her with sole parental responsibility. The lawyer was able to obtain the mother’s agreement and signature on the proposed consent orders over the course of the weekend, demonstrating great commitment to the matter by working out of hours.

The lawyer advised the mother of her right to seek independent legal advice before the filing of the documentation, which she chose not to seek. The lawyer contacted the father overseas, but he did not sign the proposed consent orders despite eventually providing verbal agreement to support sole parental responsibility orders for our client. The lawyer filed the signed documents with the Court first thing on Monday morning and obtained an urgent hearing of the matter at mid-day. As the father’s agreement and signature could not be obtained, the Court made orders requiring our client to urgently file an affidavit setting out the urgent circumstances in the matter, which was done with the assistance of the PCLC lawyer. The Court then made interim orders for our client to have sole parental responsibility for the child, meaning that our client could then provide the necessary consent for the surgery to take place. The Court also made orders to progress the case towards the making of final parenting orders. This case is an excellent example of what the FASS service can achieve. In this matter, a vulnerable client was assisted in urgent and grave circumstances with the preparation of Court documents and representation. The Court was highly responsive and provided great assistance in progressing the matter. The PCLC lawyer undertook extensive efforts to ensure that the surgery could proceed.