NASLUND & OBERLIN

In the matter of *Naslund & Oberlin*, heard before Judge Brown, the dispute concerned interim arrangements for the care of a five-year-old child. The parents had a strained and mistrustful relationship, and the mother sought to relocate the child away from the father. A court-appointed expert recommended that relocation not occur until the child reached eight years of age, and instead proposed incremental increases in the father's time with the child, coupled with attachment therapy, to foster the child's paternal relationship. The mother opposed any increase in the father's time, asserting the child was not coping with current arrangements. The trial of the parties' competing applications had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The court was required to determine the appropriate interim care arrangements for the child, considering the expert's recommendations, the parents' competing positions, and the overarching principle of the child's best interests in the context of an interim hearing. Specifically, the court had to decide whether to implement the initial stages of the expert's recommended increased time for the father, despite the mother's opposition and the fact that the recommended therapy had not yet commenced.

Judge Brown reasoned that the expert's recommendations, which included a phased approach to increasing the father's time and the implementation of attachment therapy, were designed to support the child's well-being and paternal relationship. Given the delay in the trial and the need for interim stability, the court considered it appropriate to maintain the existing time spending arrangements. This approach allowed for the necessary therapeutic interventions to be implemented as envisaged by the expert's report, providing a foundation for future consideration of more significant changes to the care arrangements.

The court ordered that the current time spending arrangements, established by orders made on 31 July 2019, would continue until further order. Further consideration of the matter was adjourned to 11 December 2020, at which time directions would be given to facilitate the implementation of the parent-child attachment based therapy recommended in the Family Assessment Report dated 18 December 2019.