‘Amend child maintenance laws’

Family law expert Margot Greene has called on Caribbean countries to enact legislation that would require a parent to recover child maintenance from another that has absconded overseas.
The Queen’s Counsel made this call for reciprocal enforcement of maintenance orders at a seminar on family law hosted by the Barbados Bar Association that attracted dozens of young attorneys at Hilton Barbados, this morning.
Currently, there is nothing in the law for one parent to recover maintenance money from another parent who has fled overseas.
Greene’s sentiments were echoed by fellow panellist and attorney-at-law Cicely Chase.
She said, “It is not that it is long overdue, it is what is just and reasonable if you can have an order from Barbados enacted upon in another Caribbean territory. You get away from having to go the courts each time to make a fresh application and avoid putting the children through another court case just to get maintenance.” (MK)