Is there anything like the Airport Watch List in New Zealand?

[sweetseven]

My fathers wife has finally taken his children (from her country) to New Zealand and he wants to keep them there until he can apply for custody through the courts.

She has discovered she is not entitled to welfare in New Zealand and rung him to demand money else she will disappear with the children and he will never see them again. He knows their passport numbers (both Australian, and for her country.) If they were in Australia, apparently he could request them being put on an airport watch list to prevent them being removed from the country.

Are there any similar options for New Zealand. My initial enquiries appear that it requires going through the courts to create an order preventing them travelling.

Previously, I was told that as their father he could cancel their passports, which would be another option, but again we have no knowlege of how to do that. (He would prefer not do that if not necessary because if he wins custody he would like to apply for permission to bring them back to Australia, and if he cancels their passports he will need to buy new ones.)

[louellyn]

Your father needs to see a solicitor, and one who can hire an agent to represent him in the NZ Family Court.

I don't know much about the NZ legal system but my brief look into your question is that he will have to apply for an order through the NZ Family Court for an order preventing them leaving. It should only take a few days to obtain through the Court.

[sweetseven]

Thanks for answering. I'm not having much luck finding a NZ lawyer to talk to. I'm currently awaiting a call back from the Australian Hague Convention team at 1:30pm today, so hopefully they can be more helpful.

[louellyn]

Where did the mother remove them from initially?

If it was initially from Australia then your father can go through the Australian Family Court to get an order that they return here and NZ will enforce it as I am pretty sure they are a signatory to the Hague Convention.

[sweetseven]

Initially was from Australia - but that was over three years ago so outside the 12 month limit for the Hague Convention. She said she was going back to sort things out with her parents then kept delaying their return.

Now that she has finally brought the children back to this side of the world, he believes he can persue the court system where he is not at a major disadvantage due to foreign language and court practices.

However I am having a lot of trouble finding any NZ lawyers to speak to. I just tried an online paid NZ legal advice service and it took several hours to get a response that was less than satisfactory. Basically the response says that he needs to go to NZ to consult a lawyer to prevent them leaving. This is basically different to everything else I've been able to find out that suggests it is not necessary to travel to the country the children are in to initiate legal proceedings.

[louellyn]

If he goes to a solicitor here they can hire a NZ solicitor as their agent.

One reason NZ solicitors may not be keen to help when he is still in Australia is concern that they won't get paid.

It may actually work out cheaper for him to go over there and work with a solicitor from there then to hire both an Australian and a NZ solicitor.

[biscotti]

Is your father overseas? (I think I read that on another thread of yours?) - can he hotfoot it back to NZ to get something in place?

[sweetseven]

He needs to stay overseas for at least two weeks, but preferably two months. And he also has the problem the he cannot afford to live in New Zealand, and expects it would all be up to the lawyers anyway. So it would be much better for him to return to Australia to earn money to pay for the lawyer to persue the case on his behalf in New Zealand.

I'm having trouble even finding an NZ lawyer to talk to in the first place. It is not even them being reluctant to talk to me; I cannot even locate them. I've tried starting from www.google.co.nz (http://www.google.co.nz) which is the New Zealand google page, but that didn't do me any good. It pointed me to a law firm in Brisbane that specialises in international child abduction, so I emailed them and they responded that I need to contact a NZ lawyer.

But I don't know how to find a NZ lawyer to contact at all.

[louellyn]

I just googled lawyers in NZ and got

http://www.hg.org/firms-new-zealand.html

or better yet their law society http://www.lawsociety.org.nz/ for referrals.

you will have to narrow it down to where the children are - eg north or south island at the very least.

[biscotti]

Here's the link for NZ Law Society - http://www.lawsociety.org.nz/home/for_the_public/find_a_lawyer
That might be helpful for you. it has lists of lawyers etc, contact info etc

eta - oh snap louellyn on the Law Society :)

[sweetseven]

Thank you. I will ring Monday as it is obviously too late today.

I would guess the north island, but my father likely has more information.

[sweetseven]

I did a search of the law society website and called the first lawyer on the top of the randomly sorted list it provided. She told me that he should be able to get a temporary 14 day order by calling interpol so that is my next port of call. Unfortunately the phone number she gave me for them is invalid, so I need to do more searching. I have found the number for Police National Headquarters and it seems to be what she was trying to give me (one extra digit).

They have said the request has to come from a solicitor, and then that solicitor must make an application to the courts within 14 days. So I'm ringing the barrister back now.

She's asked me to email the details so she can make the application. I did say at the end of the conversation that I assumed there would be a cost and she specified NZ$250 (+15% GST) per hour. I have sent her the information so that she can initiate procedings. This looks like it is going to be expensive. Hopefully once he arrives in NZ he can apply for financial assistance for the legal procedings.

[louellyn]

Good to see that you have got some answers and a direction for your father to follow.

Good luck with it all :-)