Unacceptable Risk? - Expert Family Lawer

Unacceptable Risk?

In the case of Simmons and Anor & Kingsley [2014] FamCAFC 47 the appellants were the maternal uncle and aunt of the child X aged 8 , They had appealed the final parenting orders made by Hogan J  in favour of the father in relation to the child. The father was to have sole parental responsibility for the child. The proceedings had been longstanding. The child had been placed in the care of their aunt and uncle by her mother when she became ill. The mother sadly died as a result of her illness.

The central issue at the trial was that the appellants were concerned with the father’s history of alcohol abuse and his previous convictions for drink driving offences.  The appellants had argued that the child would be at an `unacceptable risk’ in the father’s care given his history.
Bryant CJ, Stickland & Kent JJ at [4] stated that:

`on this issue the trial judge concluded…that the father had over the three years prior to trial demonstrated control of his alcohol problem…[and] the imposition of
monitoring mechanisms in the orders, there was no unacceptable risk to the
child in her father’s care’ . The appeal was dismissed.

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