Publications
Partners
In response to http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Desperate-dad-protests-to-see-child-20140829 I cannot see why it has to be so complicated.
Each and every divorce case is different but the denial of access and withholding of maintenance are way too often used as weapons to sooth hurt egos or are turned into weapons by an aggrieved ex and the only person(s) to suffer are the child(ren).
My suggestion is purely that...a suggestion and one that has not been tested in a court of law however I do not see any reasonable court not agreeing that the solution is in the best interest of the child(ren) involved.
All it takes is for one person that is gatvol enough to try this and see how far it goes in a court of law. Any lawyers care to comment?
1) Divide your maintenance amount by the amount of hours that you are entitled to have access to your child(ren). (e.g. R3 000 / 80 monthly hours = R37.50)
2) Go to a lawyer and establish a Trust Account
3) On the date that your maintenance is legally due pay the money into your Trust Account (send proof to the ex)
4) After each visitation calculate how many hours you were granted access to your child(ren) and then instruct the lawyers to pay this amount to the ex after each visitation. (Week 1. 12 hours access x R37.50 = R450. Week 2. 24 hours access x R37.50 = R900 and so forth)
5) Should the ex not allow you access then simply do not pay him/her.
6) Extra visitation hours does not mean extra maintenance, however hours where a person has been denied access can be caught up and then paid for.
7) This will prove to a court that you have paid your obligations as set out in the maintenance agreement and will also prevent an ex from using your child(ren) as a weapon.
8) For this to work it will mean that you will have to pay your maintenance as per the court order and the ex will have to abide by the access allowance in order to receive the full maintenance.
9) When your child(ren) reach a non-maintenance age any funds left in the Trust can be paid to them directly and the account closed.
This is a very simplistic way of looking at it but what it does do is remove the two weapons of "denial of access" and "withholding of maintenance" from the clutches of the sparring ex’s.
