Kavanagh and Kavanagh

This matter concerned parenting orders between Ms Kavanagh (the Applicant) and Mr Kavanagh (the Respondent), with Damien Bernard Greer acting as the Independent Children’s Lawyer. The court was asked to make orders regarding the care and responsibility for the child, C, born in May 1999.

The court was required to determine the specific parenting arrangements for the child, including parental responsibility for major long-term issues, the exchange of information between parents, living arrangements during school terms and holidays, and arrangements for special occasions. The court also needed to establish a framework for future dispute resolution and the process for varying the orders.

The court ordered that all previous orders and parenting plans be discharged. It then established equal shared parental responsibility for major long-term issues, requiring the parents to consult and make genuine efforts to reach joint decisions on matters such as changing the child's name, relocating the child's residence, changing the child's school, or significant medical interventions. Detailed provisions were made for the child's living arrangements, communication with parents, and the exchange of the child between households, with the primary changeover point to be the child's school. The court also mandated a dispute resolution process involving a family dispute resolution practitioner before any court application could be made for variations to the orders, unless emergent circumstances existed. The Independent Children’s Lawyer was discharged.