CAFFELL & FALCON

This matter concerned an application before Judge Hartnett concerning the parental responsibility and living arrangements for a child, X. The applicant father, identified as ‘Caffell’, sought orders in relation to the child, while the respondent mother, identified as ‘Falcon’, also sought orders. The dispute involved significant acrimony between the parents, impacting the child's welfare.

The court was required to determine a range of issues including who should have sole parental responsibility for the child, where the child should live, the extent of the child's contact with the father, and the child's surname. Further issues included the father's ability to travel with the child, the father's proximity to the child's school and the mother's workplace, and the father's ability to communicate with the mother. The court also considered the father's future ability to institute proceedings under the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth).

Judge Hartnett made orders reflecting a significant restriction on the father's involvement in the child's life, granting the mother sole parental responsibility and ordering that the child live with her. The court ordered that the child have no time with or communication with the father, save for any initiated by the child. The child was permitted to travel internationally without notification to the father, and the mother was authorised to obtain a passport for the child without the father's consent. The father was restrained from attending within 15 kilometres of the child's school and the mother's workplace, and was prohibited from communicating with the mother except in response to her communications. Crucially, the court ordered that the child's surname be exclusively ‘Falcon’, authorising the mother to change the child's registered name accordingly. The father was also restrained from further altering the child's surname prior to the child's 18th birthday, unless reverting to ‘Caffell’. Finally, pursuant to s 118 of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth), the father was prohibited from instituting further proceedings under the Act against the mother without leave of the court. The court also ordered that school reports and photographs be provided to the father at his expense, and discharged the order appointing an Independent Children's Lawyer.