Child Residence and Contact - How the Court Decides and How the Decision Is Enforced
In a dispute over a child's residence the court sides with neither the mother nor the father; it assesses the child's interests, and that assessment is made on specific, verifiable factors: who cared for the child day to day, where the school and the doctor are, what the housing is like, what the child says and what the social worker writes. The parent who works on those factors wins the case; the parent who paints the other as a "bad parent" often loses.
This page describes the mechanics of a residence and contact dispute: what the court and the agency check, how to write a contact schedule that actually works, what happens when one parent breaches the schedule or takes the child to another city or country, and how a lawyer protects a parent whose contact with the child is being restricted.
Updated · Practice area: Family lawyer
What the Court Weighs When Deciding a Child's Residence - and What It Does Not
In Georgian practice a young child more often stays with the mother, but that is not a presumption: the court examines the factors, and decisions placing a child with the father are made regularly.
A Residence and Contact Dispute - From the Agency Visit to Enforcement
Recording the current situation
Where the child lives now, who cares for them, on what schedule they see the other parent. If the situation favours you, the lawyer advises documenting it; if not, requesting an interim measure from the court before the "temporary" becomes the familiar environment.
Interim measure
Until the case ends, the court sets the child's temporary residence and temporary contact arrangements; for months this is often the only working regime. The lawyer requests the interim measure together with the claim, backed by a quick agency report.
Preparing for the agency
The social worker inspects the home, talks to both parents and the child, and contacts the school and the doctor. The lawyer prepares for the visit: the child's space, documents of the daily routine, nursery and activity certificates, and above all avoiding pressure on the child and discrediting the other parent.
Drafting the contact schedule
"Every other weekend" is not enough: the lawyer writes the schedule so that it can be enforced: days, hours, handover place, holidays alternating, birthdays, illness rules, video calls, travel abroad, a procedure for changes. What is specific gets enforced.
Settlement or judgment
A parental agreement approved by the court has the force of a judgment and is almost always better than an imposed one, because it gets followed. Mandatory mediation in family disputes exists for exactly this. Where agreement is impossible, a judgment on the basis of the agency report and the evidence.
Enforcement on breach
Breach of the schedule (not handing over the child, cancelling visits) is a matter for the enforcement bureau: a warning, a fine, compulsory handover in the presence of a social worker and, if needed, the police. Systematic breach is a ground for a claim to change residence, which is the strongest lever.
The Child Has Been Taken to Another Country, or Is About to Be - The Hague Convention and Georgia's Mechanism
Georgia is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. That means that if a child habitually resident in Georgia is taken to, or retained in, another contracting state by one parent without the other's consent, there is a special, expedited procedure for the child's return through the Central Authority at the Ministry of Justice, without any court dispute over whom the child should live with.
The logic of the return procedure is simple: the residence dispute must be decided by the courts of the country where the child habitually lived, not of the country where the child was taken. The parent who removed the child has only narrow exceptions to refuse return: a grave risk to the child, a mature child's objection, and more than a year having passed with the child settled. That one year is what makes speed decisive: the lawyer files the application within the first weeks.
The same mechanism works the other way, for a child brought to Georgia from another country. And prevention: taking a child abroad without the other parent's notarised consent is impossible, and a parent with a well-founded fear of abduction can ask the court for a travel ban and surrender of the passport as an interim measure. With non-contracting states the procedure depends on bilateral treaties and the local court; difficult, but not hopeless.
What a Contact Order Must Contain to Be Enforced Rather Than Argued Over Every Week
- The regular schedule
- Specific days and hours: "Friday 18:00 to Sunday 19:00 every other week, Wednesday 17:00-20:00 every week". The handover place and who takes the child. Vagueness makes enforcement impossible.
- Holidays and celebrations
- Summer holidays divided by weeks, winter holidays alternating in even and odd years, Easter, New Year, the child's and the parents' birthdays. These are the points where the conflict repeats every year.
- Communication
- The time and frequency of video calls, the channel between the parents (often written: a chat or an app), the exchange of information on school, health and travel.
- Exceptions
- The child's illness, a school event, a parent's business trip: how the visit is rescheduled and who informs whom by when. Without a substitution rule, every exception reads as a breach.
- Travel and relocation
- The rule for consent to taking the child abroad, the notice period for moving to another city, custody of the passport. The absence of this clause is the source of the most serious conflicts.
- A procedure for change
- As the child grows the schedule must change: the regime for a 3-year-old and a 12-year-old differ. A review rule and period in the agreement avoids going back to court.
What to Collect Before a Residence or Contact Dispute
- Evidence of daily care: nursery and school certificates on who brings the child; doctor's records on who attended; activity contracts; photos from ordinary days, not celebrations.
- A contact diary: date, planned visit, whether it took place, why not, confirmed by messages. The main evidence of systematic breach.
- Correspondence with the other parent on the child's matters, refusals, conditions; audio recordings of your own conversations.
- Housing documents: a lease or ownership, a photo of the child's room, distance to school and the doctor.
- Evidence of violence or danger, if any: an order, a report, an agency intervention, a medical certificate, witnesses.
- For an international case: evidence of the child's habitual residence in Georgia (school, doctor, registration) and the date and circumstances of removal.
Three Cases on Child Residence and Contact
A father with "every other weekend" who never saw the child
A general phrase in the judgment; the mother said "the child is ill" every time. Lawyer: a contact diary for 8 months, correspondence, an enforcement request to the bureau, then a claim to specify the schedule and, as the breaches continued, to change residence. A new schedule with hours and a substitution rule; contact resumed and the residence claim was withdrawn.
A child taken to Russia "for a month"
The mother took the child to the grandmother with no intention of returning. Lawyer: a Hague Convention application through the Central Authority within 3 weeks of removal, evidence of habitual residence (school, doctor, nursery in Tbilisi), no consent from the father. The child returned within 5 months; the residence dispute continued in the Tbilisi court.
A mother losing the child to "the father's higher income"
The father sought a change of residence: a two-storey house, private school funding. Lawyer for the mother: the primary-carer factor over 6 years, the child's attachment, the agency report on stability, the principle that the difference is covered by maintenance. The court kept residence with the mother, increased maintenance and widened the father's contact.
Questions About Child Residence and Contact
My child is 12 and says she wants to live with her father. Will the court automatically agree?
Not automatically, but above 10 the court must hear the child's opinion and gives it serious weight if it is independent and not contrary to the child's interests. The agency's psychologist checks whether the opinion is the child's own or the result of parental pressure. A judgment against a teenager's wishes is hard to enforce in practice, and the court knows it.
I want to move to another city with the child for work. Do I need the other parent's consent?
A move within the country needs no formal consent, but it breaches the established contact arrangements if visits become impossible, and gives the other parent grounds for a claim to change residence. The lawyer advises agreeing a changed schedule, or obtaining a court decision, before the move: with the reason, a new schedule and allocation of travel costs.
The other parent does not pay maintenance. Can I refuse contact?
No: the right of contact is the child's right, not a "reward" for the parent's payments, and restricting it weakens your position without recovering the maintenance. The levers for maintenance are separate: the bureau, a travel ban, criminal law. Systematic non-payment is one of the grounds for a separate claim to restrict parental rights, but that is for the court to decide, not the parent.
I have a judgment, but the bureau "cannot hand over" the child. What is the way forward?
The bureau has fines and compulsory handover, but the use of force towards a child is limited, and a parent who turns the child against the other exploits that. The legal answer is documenting the systematic breach and a claim to change residence: the court treats a parent who blocks contact with the other as acting against the child's interests.
Can grandparents claim contact themselves if the parent refuses?
Yes: the Code gives grandparents an independent right of contact with a grandchild, and on refusal the court sets contact arrangements for them too, assessing the child's interests. This matters especially when one parent has died or is abroad and their parents cannot see the child.
Lawyers for Child Residence and Contact Disputes
In these disputes the lawyer's skill is twofold: documenting the best-interests factors, and writing a schedule that works for years without going back to court. Within 15 minutes the coordinator connects you with a lawyer who handles children's cases, including international return.
No published lawyers in this category yet
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Call: 568 330 318Contact With Your Child Being Restricted, or a Residence Dispute Ahead?
In a free consultation the lawyer assesses which factors work in your favour, what to start recording today and what schedule is realistic - and, if the child has been taken abroad, how much time you have. A call within 15 minutes.