17/07/2026
Change of residence for children
A parenting judgment came down this month that's worth talking about, because it shows how courts actually weigh up years of history when deciding where children should live.
We acted for the father. The parents had been sharing the care of their two children roughly equally since separation. He applied for that to change, so the children would live primarily with him.
The mother had spent several years moving between violent relationships, with police involvement, apprehended violence orders and hospital admissions along the way. She had longstanding mental health diagnoses that were never properly treated, despite repeated recommendations. Housing was unstable. The children had been exposed to arguments and, at times, physical violence.
None of that happened in one dramatic incident. It built up over five years, documented in police records, medical records and two separate expert reports.
The court moved the children to live primarily with the father, with the mother having regular but reduced time.
A few things stood out to me:
Judges don't decide these cases on a single bad day. They look at the pattern — what repeats, what's been addressed, and what hasn't.
Expert reports carry real weight. Both the Independent Children's Lawyer's expert and the family report author gave consistent evidence about risk and capacity, and the court leaned heavily on that.
Being "on notice" matters. The mother had been told, well before trial, what the court's concerns were. Not acting on that was noted directly in the judgment.
Shared care isn't a default entitlement. It's only ordered where it will actually work for the children — where both parents can communicate, keep routines consistent, and keep the children safe. Where that trust isn't there, the court will choose stability over an even split.
If you're in a parenting dispute and safety or mental health is part of the picture, the earlier you get proper advice — and the earlier any treatment or support is genuinely engaged with, not just mentioned — the better placed you are when the matter eventually gets tested in court.
