Child abduction barristers for urgent cross border cases.
Hague Convention return applications and defences, wardship, location orders, passport orders and port alerts in the High Court Family Division.
Few situations in family law are as frightening as a child being taken to another country, or not coming back from a trip that was supposed to last two weeks. What you do in the first few days shapes everything that follows. Applications brought quickly are taken seriously. Applications brought months later face harder arguments about settlement, acquiescence and delay.
Clerk&Counsel introduces independent barristers, regulated by the Bar Standards Board, who act in international child abduction cases in the Family Division of the High Court. Our panel includes counsel who act both for the parent seeking a return and for the parent resisting one, which matters because the two sides of this work require quite different preparation.
We can usually put an urgent enquiry in front of counsel the same working day. Instructions come from solicitors and directly from parents under the Public Access scheme, including parents who are currently abroad. Fees are confirmed in writing before any work begins.
When your child has been taken from England and Wales.
If the child was habitually resident here and has been taken to or kept in a country that is party to the 1980 Hague Convention, the application asks that court to return the child so that the courts of this country can decide the longer term arrangements. The application does not ask the foreign court to decide who is the better parent, and cases are lost when they are argued as though it did.
The evidence needed is specific: proof of habitual residence, proof of parental responsibility and rights of custody, evidence of the travel and of any agreement about its length, and a clear account of what was said and done once the child was not returned. Anything that looks like consent to the move, including messages sent in the first confused week, will be put to you, so counsel will go through your correspondence carefully before the statement is finalised.
Alongside the return application, counsel can advise on undertakings and protective measures to be offered to the foreign court, which often make the difference in cases where the other parent raises allegations. A well prepared package of protective measures answers the grave risk defence before it is fully argued.
When a return application is made against you.
Parents who come to England with a child, often escaping a relationship that had become frightening, are frequently shocked to find themselves defending an abduction application. The court is not deciding whether you are a good parent. It is deciding whether the case should be heard here or in the country the child came from, and the available defences are narrow.
Building a defence means gathering evidence early: records of what was reported and to whom, medical or police material from abroad, evidence about the child's settlement here if more than a year has passed, and where a child is old enough, an assessment of their objections. Where grave risk is alleged, the court will consider whether the risk can be met by protective measures in the other country, so the defence has to address that head on.
Counsel will give you an honest view of prospects at the outset. In some cases the better strategy is to accept return while negotiating detailed protective conditions and immediate interim arrangements, rather than fighting a defence that the evidence does not support.
Finding a child, preventing travel and securing passports.
- Location orders requiring a person to disclose where a child is, enforced through the Tipstaff.
- Passport orders requiring surrender of passports and travel documents for a child and a parent.
- Port alerts through the police where removal is believed to be imminent.
- Prohibited steps orders preventing removal from the jurisdiction or from the care of a parent.
- Wardship, placing the child under the protection of the High Court, particularly in non Convention cases.
- Without notice applications where telling the other parent first would defeat the purpose.
- Applications for recognition and enforcement of English orders in another country.
What happens after an order is made.
An order is only as good as its enforcement. Where a return is ordered, arrangements have to be made for travel, for who accompanies the child, for where the returning parent will live and on what income, and for what happens in the first hearing back in the home country. Counsel will press for those details to be built into the order rather than left to goodwill.
Where a return is refused, the case usually converts into ordinary children proceedings here, and the focus shifts to contact with the parent abroad. That transition is much smoother when the same counsel has been involved throughout and already knows the history, the documents and the personalities.
Urgent instruction and transparent pricing.
Emergency work is quoted before it is started wherever the timetable allows, and where an application has to be made within hours we will confirm the fee basis in writing as soon as counsel is engaged. Advice and drafting are quoted as fixed fees. Hearings in the High Court are quoted as a brief fee plus refreshers, and for contested attendances in abduction work the fee reflects the preparation and the seriousness of the hearing.
Clerk&Counsel's service fee of up to £150 depending on urgency is shown separately from counsel's professional fee before you decide. There is no charge to make an enquiry, and urgent enquiries are looked at first.
If a child has been taken, tell us today.
Send the countries involved, the dates of travel and what has been said since. Urgent enquiries are looked at first and we will come back with counsel options and a fee basis.
Common questions.
What counts as international child abduction?
Taking a child out of England and Wales, or keeping a child abroad after an agreed trip, without the consent of everyone with parental responsibility or the permission of the court. It does not require secrecy or bad intentions. A parent who simply does not return after a holiday and decides to stay has wrongfully retained the child, and the same law applies.
How quickly does a Hague Convention case move?
The Convention expects a decision within six weeks of the application, and in England cases are handled by a small group of High Court judges with that timetable in mind. In practice, some cases take longer where expert evidence or protective measures are needed, but the pace is far faster than ordinary children proceedings, which is why preparation in the first days matters so much.
What defences are there to a return application?
The main ones are that the other parent consented or later acquiesced, that the child is now settled after more than a year, that there is a grave risk that return would expose the child to physical or psychological harm or an intolerable situation, that a mature child objects, or that the applicant did not have or was not exercising rights of custody. These defences are narrow and evidence heavy, and even where one is made out the court retains a discretion to order return.
What if the child has been taken to a country outside the Hague Convention?
The usual route is to apply in the High Court here, often making the child a ward of court, while instructing lawyers in the country concerned to pursue proceedings locally. Outcomes depend heavily on the legal system involved and on the practical cooperation available, and timescales are longer. Counsel will be realistic with you about what the English court can and cannot achieve on its own.
Can I stop a child being taken abroad before it happens?
Yes. Urgent applications can be made for a prohibited steps order, an order requiring passports to be surrendered, a location order to find where a child is, and a port alert through the police to prevent travel. These can be made without notice to the other parent where notice would defeat the purpose, and in a genuine emergency can be dealt with the same day, including out of hours.