Divorce and separation in Poland

A case for divorce or separation is a good opportunity to regulate in detail the issues of parental responsibility. This will avoid possible problems in the future. The court's only duty is to decide on the question of parental authority. However, you can also demand the establishment of access rights.

The court may take into account the spouses' agreement on how to exercise parental responsibility and maintain contact with the child after the divorce. As a rule, it is assumed that siblings should be brought up together, unless the good of the child requires a different solution.

Parental authority

The court may make the following decisions:

• leave parental responsibility to both parents, upon their joint application, if they have made an agreement on how to exercise parental responsibility and maintain contact with the child after divorce, and it is reasonable to expect that they will cooperate in matters of the child,
• entrust the exercise of power to one of the parents by limiting the second parent's power to specific duties and rights in relation to the child's person,
• limit parental authority (eg a court may oblige parents and a minor to a particular proceeding with simultaneous indication of the manner of controlling the implementation of orders issued, determine what actions can not be performed by parents without court authorization, or subject parents to other restrictions that the guardian is subjected to, exercising parental authority over the constant supervision of a probation officer, directing a minor to an organization or institution appointed for vocational preparation or to another institution exercising partial custody over children, order placing a minor in a foster family or in a care and educational institution),
• suspend the exercise of parental authority (in the event of a temporary impediment in the exercise of parental authority),
• deprive parental authority of one or both parents (if the parental authority can not be exercised because of a permanent obstacle or if the parents abuse parental authority or grossly neglect their duties towards the child).

Contacts with a child

In a judgment terminating a case of separation or divorce, the court may establish the rules of contact with the child. In practice, for example, specific hours and days of meetings are determined, the way of spending holidays and individual holidays.