Our specialist knowledge of dealing with difficult child care arrangements helped our client establish a routine of care with his son.

Due to our specialist knowledge in dealing with difficult child care arrangement cases, this client sought out our expertise to ensure that he could establish a routine of care with his young son. Having separated from the child's mother after a brief relationship, he was not named on the child's birth certificate and was struggling to establish a pattern of care.

The first thing we recognised in this case was that our client needed to establish spending time with his son as soon as possible. We remained hopeful that with sensible guidance from her own legal advisors, and some assurances about the well thought through arrangements for care, the mother would see the benefit to the child of spending time with his father.

Because the mother was from another country, where her family stayed, we were alive to the fact that the mother may try to leave the UK. Her initial reaction was to threaten to leave the UK with the child so we applied to the court to prevent the mother from removing the child from the UK.

With some careful handling of the situation, the mother came around to the idea of our client spending time with the child. We encouraged our client to attend mediation with the mother. While the mediation was difficult at first, it resulted in our client establishing a pattern of care with his son, which they worked to build up over time.

Key highlights

• As a large team of family lawyers based across Scotland, we pro-actively manage situations to protect our clients' interest.  
• When necessary, we deal with matters in court with tenacity and wisdom. We use the same quality of experience to advise clients if their situation is best resolved away from court.  
• We give practical advice to help our client's meet their objectives.   

Outcome

With hard work and a clear steer on how best to approach matters, the parents are now endeavouring to build a positive parenting relationship. They understand that they will require to co-parent their son for several years and wish to move away from the earlier conflict.

You have given me a second chance at having a relationship with my son and for that I am hugely grateful. You took the time to understand my situation and explained every step of the process, so I was always well informed. You were excellent in court and I couldn't have asked for a better outcome - thank you! Client testimonial