April 2024 – Provisional Order issued by the Single-Member Court of Athens, expanding contact of father with his children

Recently, a Provisional Order was issued by the Single-Member Court of Athens, accepting the relevant request of our principal, the father of two boys aged 11 and 8, to increase his contact with them. Specifically, until the issuance of the aforementioned Provisional Order, our client’s contact with his children was regulated by a final judicial decision of the Single-Member Court of Patras, which provided for in-person contact every second and fourth weekend of each month, from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. During the time of discussion and issuance of the aforementioned judicial decision, the parents resided in different cities of Greece, and for this reason, limited contact bwas granted to the father. After the recent relocation of the mother and children to Athens, the father began efforts to gradually transfer his center of life to Athens as well. He initially sought to transfer his professional activities to this city in order to be close to his children. Thus, he managed to establish cooperation to provide services in Athens and to be in this city half of the week (from Thursday to Monday morning), renting a residence five minutes away from his children’s residence.

The Judge of the Court of Athens, considering the substantive validity of our request, specifically the substantial change in circumstances since the issuance of the aforementioned final judicial decision of the Single-Member Court of Patras, as well as the existence of an urgent situation due to the strong desire of the children to spend more time with their father, knowing that he now resides close to them, and the mother’s refusal to provide more communication time to the father, insisting on a formalistic application of the judicial decision, accepted our client’s request, granting him an extended right of communication with his children. Specifically, it was stipulated that the father would communicate with his children every other week (alternately) starting from Thursday, with pickup of the children from their school at dismissal time, until Monday morning, with return to their school (with 4 overnight stays at the father’s residence), and during the remaining intermediate weeks of each calendar month, he would communicate on Thursday, with pickup from their school at dismissal time until 9:00 p.m. of the same day. Our client’s contact increased from 4 days (based on the aforementioned final judicial decision) to at least 10 days per month with 8 overnight stays, and if the month has five weekends, the father will have 12 days with 10 overnight stays of the children at his residence. The pickup and return location of the children for the exercise of communication was designated as their school upon acceptance of our client’s request, thereby ensuring his active participation in the daily life and school routine of his children.