The Cyprus Family Courts have jurisdiction in the area of divorce, child and/or spouse maintenance, parental responsibility, property dispute resolution, adoptions, use of family homes, paternity and child abduction. Each procedure maintains its autonomy and is carried out independently of any other. However, in some cases the outcome of one procedure may affect the outcome of another.
Our concern is to understand and prioritize our client’s problems and demands, to prioritize the issues that require urgent handling and to offer solutions as direct and balancing as possible for the children involved.
In practice, the procedures for maintenance and parental responsibility include arrangements concerning the children therefore maintain an urgency and are often adjudicated before the divorce procedure. As a result they legally seal a fait accompli.
In particular, the child maintenance decree is based on the legal obligation of the parents to provide for their minor child jointly, each according to his or her own capabilities. Maintenance is determined on the basis of the needs of the minor, as they determined from the circumstances of his/her life and the financial capabilities of the parents. Maintenance includes everything necessary for the child’s upkeep and well-being as well as the costs of his or her general education.
The decrees on custody, parental responsibility and communication are intended to regulate, in the best interests of the child, the rights and obligations of the parents after the termination of the cohabitation with regard to issues of custody, care, upbringing, parental decisions, as well as to ensure the right of the parent who does not live with the minor to maintain personal contact with the child on a consistent basis.
Legal experience has shown that the parental responsibility and contact decrees, in addition to regulating the rights and obligations of the parents, also benefit the child because they restore to the child’s life the routine and the fixed schedule that is usually disturbed during the termination of the parents’ cohabitation.
The settlement of property disputes determines the contribution of each spouse to the growth of property acquired within the marriage or for the purpose of marriage. The cases in which a Family Court rules on the share of each spouse are diverse and each dispute is dealt with in the light of its own circumstances. The element of causality attributed to each spouse in the granting of divorce in cases where violent, very cruel or immoral conduct has been exhibited may affect the outcome of the court’s decision on property disputes.
