Recovery Orders – what are they?
Recovery Orders are orders directing a person or other entity to return children to another person.
They are usually necessary where one parent has removed children from another parent and refuses to return them.
Recovery Orders authorise the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to find the children and deliver them to the parent seeking recovery of the children.
The parent seeking recovery of the children must be present with the AFP at the time of recovery.
It isn’t necessary to have existing Court Orders that the children live with you in order to obtain a recovery order as a request for an order that the children live with you can be sought at the same time as a recovery order.
A common question is – why don’t the state (or federal) police have power to automatically recover children when there are court orders in place?
The answer is because a court of law needs to assess the situation – in a small percentage of cases the court finds that the circumstances are such that the parent who removed the children from the other parent did act in their best interests and had reasonable excuse to do so.
If you need a recovery order, or you need to respond to an application for a recovery order, contact us at Freedom Law for a no obligation free consultation to discuss your situation.