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Child Recovery

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A recovery order is an order of the Court that can require a child be returned to a:

  • parent of the child, or
  • person who has a parenting order that states the child lives with, spends time with or communicates with that person, or
  • person who has parental responsibility for the child.
  • A recovery order can authorise or direct a person or persons, such as police officers, to take appropriate action to find, recover and deliver a child to one of the people listed above. A recovery order can prohibit the person from again removing or taking possession of the child. If the person removes or takes possession of the child again, that person can be arrested. A recovery order can also provide directions about the day-to-day care of a child until the child is returned or delivered.
 
You can apply for a recovery order if you are a:
  • person who the child lives with, spends time with or communicates with as stated in a parenting order, or
  • person who has parental responsibility for the child in a parenting order, or
  • grandparent of the child, or
  • person concerned with the care, welfare and development of the child. For example, you may be the person who the child lives or spends time with but there is no parenting order that states this.
 
In deciding whether to make a recovery order, the Court will consider the best interests of the child. The Court is not responsible for physically recovering the child. In most cases the Australian Federal Police will assist with the recovery of the child. If the Court makes an order authorising or directing another person or persons to find, recover and deliver the child, you must give a copy of the order to that person or persons, such as the Australian Federal Police. The Australian Federal Police will not generally recover a child until you are able to receive the child and are close by. This means you may need to travel to collect the child, from wherever the child is, when he or she is recovered. When the child is returned to you, you must notify registry staff at the Court as soon as practicable.
 
If you do not know where the child is, you can ask the Court to issue other orders to help you locate the child. Types of orders you may seek include:
  •  Location order – requires a person to give the Court information about the child’s location
  • Commonwealth Information order – requires a Commonwealth Government Department, such as Centrelink, to give the Court information about the child’s location that is contained in or comes into the records of the Department
  • Publication order – allows the media to publish details and photographs of the missing child and the person they are believed to be with.
 
If a child has been abducted from Australia without your consent, or has not been returned to Australia, an application can be under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction for the recovery of the child. The Hague Convention is an international treaty that tries to ensure that children who are wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained by a parent, will be returned as quickly as possible to the country in which they habitually reside so that issues of parental responsibility can be resolved by the courts in that country. Australia is a party to the Hague Convention and is therefore a Convention country. Not all countries are Convention countries. If your child is taken to a country which is not a party to the Hague Convention or a country in a bilateral agreement with Australia, then you may need to commence private legal proceedings in that country.
 
If you want to seek the return of your child, it is important to take action as soon as you discover that the child has been taken from Australia or retained overseas. Any delay may later be seen as a lack of concern about the child being overseas or that you consented to the child being overseas.
 
Call one of our Family Lawyers for free initial telephone advice on your circumstances on 95258688.

Key People

sutherland shire lawyer greg dicksonGreg Dickson 

primary area of practice is litigation. In 1993, he became one of the first solicitors in New South Wales to achieve Accreditation as a Specialist in Family Law and Property Relationships Act Law. Greg is the head of our Family Law Division but also practices extensively in commercial and general litigation ...read more

sutherland shire lawyer kevin dwyerKevin Dwyer 

can advise you upon and conduct all Family Law and De Facto Relationship matters in the Family Courts at Sydney, Wollongong and Parramatta. Kevin can also assist you in Criminal Law and appear in Local Courts all over New South Wales in AVO and criminal proceedings as well as ...read more

Amanda DoringAmanda Doring 

is a Family Law Accredited Specialist with extensive experience drafting binding financial agreements and conducting urgent applications in the Family Court and Federal Magistrate’s Court as well as De Facto proceedings in the Supreme, District and Local Courts ...read more

Lisa O'Leary 

operates predominantly in the area of Family Law and De Facto Relationship dispute resolution in the Family Court, the Federal Magistrates Court, the Local and Supreme Court or by alternative dispute resolution procedures ...read more 

Nicola Morgan 

Nicola joined Warren McKeon Dickson in January 2009 as the recipient of the Warren McKeon Dickson Work Integrated Learning Scholarship offered in conjunction with the University of Wollongong.  ...read more 

 

 

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