No Domestic Violence Presumption Against Father’s Contact

Re F (a child) (Contact Order) CA [2001] 1FCR 422

The judge in stating that the father “failed to demonstrate that he was a fit person to have contact” imposed an unjustified burden on the father. The subsequent case of RE L; RE V; RE M; RE H [2000] 2 FCR 404 showed that there was no presumption against contact in cases where violence has been alleged which is required to be displaced. The judge’s misapprehension of the law resulted in the appeal being allowed and the case remitted for re-hearing.