Child Law

It is extremely unfortunate that children often find themselves at the centre of divorce proceedings, separations or fighting between their parents. They end up bearing the brunt of their parent’s differences which are expressed through their arguments with one another and even worse, sometimes they are used as a means by one parent to inflict abuse and pain on the other.

If the child is old enough to comprehend what is happening, more often than not, the child ends up blaming his/herself for being the cause of the parents’ fighting.

This causes untold emotional stress and pain for children. If these issues are not addressed as soon as possible, children’s mental and psychological well-being and development can be seriously affected.

Given the above, it is extremely important that in divorces, separations and domestic violence cases, the future well-being of the children involved is made the number one priority.

Our approach is to assist and encourage parents by means of joint consultation and in some instances the involvement of external mediators and child counsellors to put their differences aside for the purposes of negotiating and determining arrangements for care and contact of their children. The purpose of this is to ensure that the best interests of the children and their future development is properly looked after. This approach is further endorsed by our courts and is well-entrenched in the Children’s Act.

In this regard, we view litigation as a last resort that should only be employed where the levels of tension and intolerance between the parents is extremely high (usually accompanied by repeated incidences of domestic violence) to the extent that there is no reasonable possibility of them being capable of coming to an amicable resolution, even after repeated attempts to do so.