Woods and Sellers

This matter concerned an application before Judge Hartnett regarding parenting arrangements for a child. The dispute involved the mother and father of the child, X, born in 2011, and their respective proposals for the child's living arrangements, time spent with each parent, and communication.

The court was required to determine the terms of orders concerning equal shared parental responsibility, the child's primary residence, the father's time with the child, and provisions for relocation of the child's residence. Additionally, the court needed to address issues of parental communication, the prevention of denigration, and the child's welfare, including medical information sharing.

By consent, the court ordered that the mother and father have equal shared parental responsibility for the child, with the child to live with the mother. Specific provisions were made for the child to spend time and communicate with the father, including weekday and weekend arrangements, with the father responsible for providing dinner on weekdays. The court also made orders restraining both parents from denigrating each other and requiring them to attend counselling to address communication issues. Further orders stipulated that the child would live with the mother in a specified location until a certain date, after which the mother was at liberty to relocate the child, with consequential changes to the father's time with the child. The parties were also ordered to use a communication book and to inform each other of serious illness or injury to the child, and to authorise medical practitioners to communicate with the other parent regarding the child's medical condition.