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Hi I reside in Scotland my ex partner reside in England does she automatically have custody because our child lives with her ,the problem is I wish to bring our child up for a holiday she is refusing using one excuse after another can I just travel down and bring her up here without my ex s say so
Hi Steadward and welcome to the site!
No you can't, because this would be child abduction. I appreciate how frustrating this situation must be for you and many of us have experienced similar problems 🙁
Do you have Parental Responsibility for your child? Does your name appear on your daughters birth certificate? How old is your daughter?
As your child resides with her mother, then her mother is the resident parent and you are the non-resident parent. The law sees contact as the right of a child and not the parent, but expects the child to have a relationship with both parents. The level of contact that you have is currently controlled by the mother, but she is supposed to be reasonable about this and, dependent on the age of your child, it could be perceived that she is being unreasonable for not allowing her to stay with you during holidays.
You can try and resolve this between yourselves, but if you can't reach an agreement you can seek the assistance of a trained third party by using a family mediation service. As the mother lives in England this would have to happen at a service near her. If this fails, or the mother declines mediation, the only other course of action open to you is to apply for a contact order through the courts. Again, this would have to been done in an English court.
You could represent yourself in court, which is a route many Dads are taking to save on solicitors fees. Again you'll be doing all this in England, but there are some great resources available to guide you through the process.
FM '70
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