French Family Law Case

LittleRose

I'm not entirely sure that I'm even on the right board. Basically, I am looking for some advice about how to proceed with this. My partner has a young daughter who lives in France with her mother. In 2007, she took him to court for an increase in the amount of maintenance he was paying her (he was giving her approximately 1200 euro per month at this stage but he had decided on this figure himself) but she felt that he should be paying her more, namely 2000 euro due to the fact that she couldn't work to the best of her abilities because she had a child and this held her back. He was awarded accesss to his daughter giving him permission to take her to Ireland six times per year during school holidays. She was awarded 770 euro per month maintenance and he covers the cost of all travel to and from Ireland. This is an aggregate cost to him of about 1200 euro per month when flights and hotel accommodation is taken into account. Not to mention days off work.

When he told her during the summer that we were expecting another baby (our second), he received an email from his lawyer saying that she wanted to go to live in Canada with his daughter and she wanted him to sign an affadavit allowing her to do this. He refused for a number of reasons, not least of all the fact that she will be living thousands of miles away from family. So she took him to court and said that if he didn't sign it, she wanted an increase to E1500 per month as her earnings were down due to having to look after her daughter. He couldn't appear in court the day of the case for a very good reason and she won the case hands down. Was granted permission (overruling his wishes) to take his daughter to Canada.

Basically, we don't know what to do from here. Is there an agency in Ireland that could give him advice? Is there any such thing as an International family law firm who could act for him over there? He received the judgement via a scanned document in French. His Parisian lawyer didn't appear in court for him, didn't write up his submission (he did this himself) and six weeks later, he hasn't received a full explanation of the judgement or hasn't given him any advice as to how to proceed from here. He has emailed the lawyer threatening him with the French Law Society if he doesn't furnish him with a full explanation.

One of the stipulations in the judgement is that he is to still have the same access to his daughter as he has currently. But we don't see how this is either practical or financially viable for the mother and we fear that she will renege on this. Where does that leave him?

Apologies for the very long rant but any advice will be appreciated.

Tom Young

Poster - There is a forum charter. You seek specific advice, which is something better coming from a readily recognised and recognisable legal professional - such as a solicitor.

Tom