There have been a couple of examples of family court judges sending people to prison for deliberately ignoring their orders. Although it doesn’t happen very often, as judges prefer to find another way to deal with matters where possible, family judges can and do send people to prison for breaching their orders – this is not a criminal conviction, but all civil (non-criminal) courts have a power to enforce their orders by committing the person who has broken it to prison. The family court is no different.
Whether the breach is of an order about a child or an order about money the approach is the same – the breach has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt just like in a criminal court, and the sentence that is imposed will be partly by way of punishment and partly in order to secure compliance. The longest sentence that can be imposed is two years (the max is 6 weeks where the committal is for non payment of debt under a judgment summons).
We wrote last year about a case called Hart v Hart. See our earlier post here. At that stage the Court of Appeal had dealt with an appeal from an order made by a judge that divided up the assets of a couple who had divorce. The issue was about how the judge had calculated his award bearing in mind some of the assets pre-dated the marriage. The appeal was dismissed. Since then the wife has been trying to enforce orders relating to the judge’s decision that Mr Hart should transfer a business to her as part of the settlement. Mr Hart had transferred the business and all its liabilities / responsibilities to her – but had stripped the business of all necessary paperwork with which to run it. This was a breach of an order and the judge found the breaches were repeated and intentional – essentially made out of spite because Mr Hart was mightily narked at the judge’s decision to give his ex one of his businesses. He had, said the judge, set out to frustrate her ability to run the business. Because the breaches were so serious and repeated, and because the sentence was also intended to ‘coerce’ Mr Hart into (finally) providing the documents, the sentence was for a total of 14 months, of which Mr Hart will likely serve half.
Such a sentence is unusual, more so because Mr Hart is an octogenarian.
You can read the judgments in Hart v Hart here and here
We also wrote last year about another case where a pensioner was committed to prison for breaking orders (of the Court of Protection in that case). See here, regarding the committal of Mrs Kirk, who was 71 at the time. Mrs Kirk was sentenced to six months imprisonment for breaking orders made to secure the return of Mrs Kirk’s elderly brother from Portugal where he had been placed in a care home. In the event, however, Mrs Kirk served only seven months as a result of a successful appeal.
In another recent case : Borg v El Zubaidy [2018] EWHC 432 (Fam) (26 February 2018), a father was committed to prison for twelve months (likely to serve six), having already served six months of a twelve month sentence in respect of essentially the same issues. Mr El Zubaidy had taken his children abroad to Tunisia and then failed to return them for several years, suggesting he did not know where they were. The first sentence related to an order requiring the children’s return by a particular date, and the second related to breaches of a later return order.
The court simply did not find believable the father’s suggestion that he didn’t know where the children and his family were saying he had been unable to make contact with them – he did not seem at all bothered by the possibility that his children might have come to harm. The judge imposed a second 12-month sentence in the hope it would persuade the father to ‘find’ his lost children.
*Update : the max is 6 weeks where the committal is for non payment of debt under a judgment summons. Thanks to David Burrows for suggesting this amendment.
UPDATE 1 APRIL : See judgment in Lukjanenko v Medway Council [2018] EWCA Civ 612 (27 March 2018), where a father’s appeal against an 8 month sentence for breaking reporting restriction and anti-harassment injunctions was dismissed (the sentence was upheld). See our earlier post about that case here.
Pic courtesy of Mark Strozier on Flickr (Creative Commons) – thanks!
For a little more on this see https://dbfamilylaw.wordpress.com/2018/03/26/breach-of-a-court-order-in-family-proceedings/; and for legal aid – granted by the court – for those subject to an application to commit – see https://dbfamilylaw.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/legal-aid-committal-proceedings-in-the-family-courts/. As far as I know legal aid remains as I explained it in May 2015…
what about when a local authority breaks an order and you have proof of doing so , you are silenced and threatened or sent to prison , judges dont and will not hold authorities to orders , i lost my son because a judge refused to look at my evidence of wrong doing and orders broken , and im not some disgruntled parent either
Yes I have a similar instant where social services – left out important truths only adding a biased one sided story in their account. Bodies like social services generally having looked at it thoroughly have done more harm than good in recent cases.
I feel for you. I lost my son for a year and was eventually offered £300 compensation for the local authority lying in court, failing to carry out work ordered by the court and dishonesty.
I now have a good relationship with my son, but it was hard work. Despite the judge being angry that social services didn’t do what he’d asked, he took no action against them. It’s a disgrace.
I hope things work out for you. If you haven’t used them before, look up Families need Fathers. Brilliant organization. Lots of help and lots of others sadly in the same boat as you.
Good luck.
I feel for you. I lost my son for a year and was eventually offered £300 compensation for the local authority lying in court, failing to carry out work ordered by the court and dishonesty.
I now have a good relationship with my son, but it was hard work. Despite the judge being angry that social services didn’t do what he’d asked, he took no action against them. It’s a disgrace.
I hope things work out for you. If you haven’t used them before, look up Families need Fathers. Brilliant organization. Lots of help and lots of others sadly in the same boat as you.
Good luck.
What tosh. They punish for financial matters or when somebody campaigns to show what the family courts get up to. To suggest enforcement is a general thing is rubbish. The number of contact or child arrangements orders enforced is derisory.
I have a daughter her dad have custody because I be homeless and i find my ex husband abused my daughter also I got evedense to prof he abused my daughter but she still live with my ex do you think may order will be change
M, if you are on a low income it my be that you qualify for free legal advice. You could try and find a legal aid lawyer at gov.uk.
It is a pity that the family courts tends only to carry out enforcement as a face saving exercise when defiance is being shown in a nuanced fashion directly to the court or establishment where the judge’s authority is being directly challenged rather than enforcement for defiance of the order where the other party to proceedings is being denied justice and a family life without good reason and it rarely happens in child arrangements proceedings where it is most needed (approx 1.2 % of CA 1989 S11J applications are enforced in 2017 and that number has dropped year on year). It smacks of governance rather than family justice. I have a close relative who is on CAO application no. 4 (2nd enforcement)…we know what will happen. Respondent will make a blatant admission acting contrary to law – CA1989 S2(8). Judge will send to magistrates for a variation to get it off their desk, thus redirecting the enforcement. Magistrates will indulge the distraction of the respondent which does nothing to address the issue of the application and kick start the doomed “tinkered at the edges” order with a list of dates for the year until the next cycle of contact where the cycle of “no co-operation from the resident parent” starts again under a different judge. All practice direction guidelines point to enforcement applications in such circumstances…all evidence for enforcement applications points to teflon coated shoulders on the gowns worn by judge’s complicit with the travesty of justice. Even LJ Mumby has acknowledged that lower family courts act inconsistently with the rule of law on the matter.
Please can I have more information on this if available
I’m going through a similar situation at the moment, I tried to very an order, due to my autistic and other complex need also going through crisis after said “father” no PR for this child also fled from this person in to refuge due to domestic abuse and physical abuse to this child, judge refused and then threaten imprisonment if contact does not happen, I currently don’t have a car and live over 300 miles away from the other parties I have offered more phone contact. I’m so scared my son is going to be left without his career and his mother.
The latest court order prevents x wife (respondent) to interfere with my application for my sons secondary school while custody is being decided ( next hearing in april). As soon as I served on x list of schools i applied, she rung them to say that application was made outside the borough child does not live, therefore he can not be considered. Which is explicitly what she was told not to do. What am do in order to prevent further interference?
We can’t give you legal advice fireman dad. This is something you should speak to your lawyer about or raise with the court.
Lucy, when you find compelling evidence that Cafcass service managers areconecting on social media with council social worker who are acti g in the same family court case that surely is colluding together. Even the head director of childrens services has cafcass friends on social media. To top it all a cafcass service manager was also running a fostering agency that had connections to 6 childrens homes, is that not criminal acts. I found a large council legal body is not SRA rejistered but with iso which to me looks bussiness.
I’m not sure that being linked on social media is necessarily evidence of collusion – lots of professionals are part of social media networks in order to share knowledge and experience across agencies – lawyers, social workers and others etc. It is quite an important learning tool for many.
Currently I have a order in place , where I am able to call twice a day to speak with my son. My ex wife requested I buy him a phone that order was made 3years ago when he was 4 and now he is 7. I bought the phone and call everyday and she keeps his phone off so I can not speak to him. Could I press charges or file a police report for this violation of the family court order?
ML (we’ve anonymised you),
We don’t give advice on individual cases via this blog, but this is unlikely to be a police matter.
What alternative steps can be taken when a parent has breached and refuses to engage in hearings and turn up to court and the court is not doing anything about it?
AF, The Transparency Project doesn’t give legal advice I’m afraid and the answer would depend on the circumstances.
TP Team
I have a court order in place that grants me access to my children. We are in and out of court as she breaks the order and refuses my holiday dates with them. She has now said that I cant see my children this weekend and has refused contact despite the order being the contrary – can she do this ??
Can I still arrive for collection with my court order to collect the girls, if she doesnt comply with the order do i simply call the police ??
Hi Brian,
I’m afraid we can’t give legal advice at TP.
TP Team
years late, but no doubt you’ve found you can’t do anything.
police say go to family court, family court won’t enforce an order for a separated father – the whole point of family court is to dispose of separated fathers and enable the mother to persuade the children that’s how it must be.
UK family courts and cafcass exist purely to dispose of dads, unless the dads are rich enough to put hundreds of thousands into their abusive money go round.
When you appeal a court order in the amount of time specified, what can be done if no reply or answer is given from the court.
It seems obvious that the family courts do not do their work diligently. A woman can make false allegations, misleading statements, and lie, and the family court don’t have the tools to find out the truth. Meanwhile the father is a victim of prejudice and bias. I was primary carer of our son while my wife went back to work when our son was 9 months old. We divorced (she filed for divorce so as not to face repercussions for HER domestic violence towards me) when our son was four-and-a-half. I had to go to court to see him at all. He has been suffering ever since. with much reduced time with Daddy, who did the early years school run and told him stories at bedtime. He has now, aged ten, written in confidence to the judge asking to live with Daddy. The CAFCASS social worker’s report was given to his mother, and now she is stopping him living with me at all, and even visits. This despite an interim order giving 50/50 in all holidays and weekends and some week-days during school time. I am trying to get the interim order enforced with a C79. I am in despair. My mental state is one of powerlessness. My son is beginning to view me as weak. He would say “Why should Mummy always get her own way?”. Now he cannot say what’s on his mind because she is always behind him in phone calls and punishes him for saying positive things about me. He has been scared to go home to her anger and reported this to his teacher. I am a very capable, loving, and well educated father with experience in teaching. I am not seeing my son. Why? He and I are both in a lot of pain. M.