June 2024 – Decision no 2837/2024 Overturning the Temporary Order – Extended father-child contact time

Decision No. 2837/2024 of the Athens Single-Member Court of First Instance (Interim Measures) has been issued, accepting our client’s application for the expansion of his contact time with his minor child. Up until said decision, contact between the father and child was regulated by a Temporary Order, under which the father and child communicated only two weekends per month. The days and hours during which the contact took place did not serve the child’s best interests, as, due to the nature of the father’s work, they coincided with the days and hours during which the father was working.

We highlighted the aforementioned deficiencies of the Temporary Order during the hearing and in writing with our claims and supporting documents. The Judge of the Single-Member Court of First Instance of Athens found probable cause in the substantial validity of our application and, rejecting the opponent’s claims of alleged indifference, domestic violence, and general unsuitability of the father, concluded that the father is a suitable parent and capable of caring for his child, whom he surrounds with affection and love. Consequently, the judge expanded the father’s contact time with the child to appropriate days and hours. Contact time was increased, and while the temporary order stipulated that he could communicate with his child every first and third weekend of each month (with one overnight stay at the father’s residence on Saturday), the aforementioned decision additionally regulated personal contact between the father and child on a weekly basis, every Monday and Thursday (with the child staying overnight on the corresponding days at the father’s residence).