Soulos & Sorbo

The parties in this matter were the mother, Ms Sorbo, and the father, Mr Soulos, concerning their child, B. The mother sought to relocate with the child to Country N, while the father refused to travel to Country N or Europe. The dispute also involved competing applications for sole parental responsibility and concerns raised by the father regarding the child's safety in the mother's care, including allegations of family violence and the mother calling the child by a different name.

The court was required to determine several key legal issues. Firstly, it needed to decide whether the mother should be permitted to relocate with the child to Country N, considering the child's relationship with the father and the father's refusal to travel. Secondly, the court had to address the issue of parental responsibility, specifically whether it should be equal shared or sole to one parent. Thirdly, the court was asked to consider the child's name, with the mother wishing to use a different first name and the father having rejected this at the child's birth.

In relation to the relocation, the court found that there was no unacceptable risk to the child in the father's care and that if the mother were to relocate, the child would not have a relationship with the father. Consequently, the court ordered that the mother not be permitted to relocate. The court also made orders for equal shared parental responsibility, with the child to live with the mother. The court further ordered that the child's name be registered with an additional first name, as recommended by a single expert, and that the mother be restrained from using any name other than B on official documents. The court also made detailed orders regarding the child's time with the father, communication between parents and the child, and specific issues such as health and schooling, including placing the child on the Family Law Watchlist for two years.