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Child Abduction - international and domestic

Our law firm employs highly skilled professionals that have experience with dealing with child abduction procedures across the country.

We deal with classic child abductions (criminal procedures) and with cases where one parent abducts the child (relocates him without proper consent) to another place of living or country.

There are criminal, civil and administrative aspects of this cases.

Criminal - prosecution, police, search orders


The criminal aspect is mostly usefull or applicable when there is a "classic" abduction (someone takes the child from the child's parents). We can serve as a intermediary or legal voice of the parents, be in contact with the court, police, child services, public prosecutor, etc. 

When there is the case where one parent abducts (takes or relocates) the child without the other parent's consent, we have to provide enough evidence of home and foreign law, caselaw, decisions. The criminal aspect is mostly usefull to locate and find the child and to prevent further travels or fleeing, by means of interpol warrants to prohibit the passing of a country border, identification and/or seizure of passports.

Civil aspects

Most of the effort we do for our client is from presenting the family case regarding abduction to the competent court in Slovenia. This can be either domestic, or international (Hague or EU directive/regulation) abduction case.


We provide assistance to the clients in contacting the competent court, the relevant central body (Ministry of social affairs and family) and competent center for social services. We examing, prepare, revise requests of return of the child and provide proper support for filing. Our attorneys write petitions to expedite the procedure, to serve as a liaison between the client (and in some cases even their home attorney) and the Slovene court. We provide assistance to provide a hearing of the petitioner and provide data and means to provide a court-appointed translator.

 

Our attorneys can assist in the Hague Child Abduction Convention procedure. We send memos, petitions and explain the court bylaws to the client. Our aim is to provide quality legal support to the client.

We have experience in the matter in several courts in Slovenia, where we represented the client and their interes before the court. 

 

We cannot file a Hague petition directly because that must be deposited in the country of »habitual residence of the child«. We can, however, be of assistance what to write and what documents to attach.



Prerequisites: 

We start working on the matter as soon as certain conditions are met:

-    We get a signed power of attorney (POA) delivered by regular (snail) mail – we provide the POA draft, that is accepted by Slovene court (we can provide bilingual – English & Slovene, but the Slovene version must be the dominant one);

-    We get a signed legal services agreement, stating what the client pays;

-    We receive an advance fee transfer from the client;

-    We get a copy of the documents and their translation into Slovene or English;

-    We collect contact data of the client (email, phone, GSM/Cell, address)

 

Special considerations

  • We do not work for free or for legal aid or pro bono or »on success« principle on this matters. We work only on hourly rate basis with an advance payment clause;
  • Due to current case-law, the opposing party is not obliged to pay for your expenses or costs even if you win. You can try a reimbursement suit in your home country, but in Slovenia that is not possible;
  • The Hague child abduction procedure is a quick process, but nothing happens overnight. The court has a six week period for deciding, but that is usually prolonged. Also, bear in mind there is an appeal process which can take some time too. Normally the procedure should be over (decision final, with appeal court ruled) in approx 3-6 months (depending on the appeal court timeframe).
  • A hearing of the petitioner is not mandatory but is in our opinion recommended. It is, however, a bit costly, because you need to finance the court interpreter;
  • The advance fee transfer does not cover all the costs, more costs, expenses are due to come.
  • If the opposing party does not comply with the final decision, we can start a court enforcement procedure, but that would cost extra. We have initiated the enforcement procedure for some clients but at the end almost all the opposing party return with the child to the habitual residence country/state/town.
  • There are some exceptions to returning the abducted child to the »habitual residence«, which is aligned with the case law and text of the Hague Child Abduction Convention. The attorney will try to establish whether this can be an issue in your case, but the final decision is the court of Slovenia. Ask your attorney for details.
  • Slovenia is a signing party to the Hague Child Abduction Convention, but for the petition to be filed, your habitual country of residence of the child must also be a signing party of the convention.

For clients or cases within the EU, the EU regulation is used instead (or alongside) to the Hague convention. Some differences exist that might change the above mentioned information. Please contact us with your case details and we will provide assistance in the matter and/or provide you with a quality feedback.

Bear in mind no attorney or person can guarantee a speedy and quick solution. Procedures and court take time. We provide asistance that this timeframes are not extended without reason or in excess and provide means for notification if that occurs. We provide best possible effort for the clients interest in the particular case, in the particular court and particular circumstances. 


For further questions, use contact form.

Check also:

Administrative law
Child Abduction
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Contract law
Copyright law
Criminal law
Debt Collection Procedure
Debt Collection Procedure
Enforcement Law
Family law
Foreigner's rights
Inheritance law
Insolvency law
Labour disputes
Legalization and Apostille
Mediation
Misdemeanor law
Non-litigious procedure
Property law
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Social security law
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