order is in place, maintenance of a child is often linked to the quality of the relationship between the father and mother. So, where the relationship between the parents is bad, the child suffers.

The Maintenance Act was enacted to ensure that any of the parties can approach the court to seek maintenance for the child, thus putting the child as the focus instead of the parents.

Here is the experience of Star reader, NC: "Good morning, Mr Bishop, I have a one-year-old son. I have being paying for almost everything for him. His father got himself in trouble and I had to be the one doing everything.

Constant reminder

"He started to help with taking care of our son, but I had to basically tell him all the time. He doesn't give me the money, as he prefers to buy what our son needs. These days, he keeps putting things in front of our son's needs.

"On two occasions, he went away and didn't leave any money, nor did he make preparations for me to get money to take care of our son. Once again, I had to do it all by myself. When he came back, he stayed away for a while.

"He gives our son what he needs when he feels like it or when I or my mom tells him. I told him the relationship wasn't working out and I guess he's upset about it. He told me he would be leaving in a couple of weeks, so I asked him how I would get support. He said that he'd make sure I got it.

Compensation

"My questions are: Am I entitled to get any form of compensation for the times that I had to spend all this money? Can he take me to court for leaving him and take my son away from me? Should I take him to court for child support?"

In response, let me say that Section 8 of the Maintenance Act provides that "every parent has an obligation, to the extent that the parent is capable of doing so, to maintain the parent's unmarried child who is a minor or who is in need of such maintenance, by reason of physical or mental infirmity or disability."

Court's decision

The best approach might be for you to go to court to ask for a maintenance order, but you must remember that each parent has an obligation to provide support for the child. By going to court, the court will apportion the obligation according to the capacities of the parents. In short, the court will require the father to pay a particular sum on a weekly or monthly basis. An order can also be made for the maintenance money to be paid to you directly, lodged to your account, or even paid to the court, and then you collect it.

As to your concern about recovering sums already spent, I believe that it is unlikely that any judge will make an order for you to be repaid. As you would imagine, this would be hard to prove and no doubt very contentious.

I don't know that he can take you to court for leaving him nor can he take your son away from you just like that. To get your son, he would need to make an application to the court for custody, care and control. The court would then consider what is in the best interest of the child before any order is made in favour of any of the parents.

I should advise you that if you live in the Corporate Area or Montego Bay, the Family Court has a counselling unit that you can visit to discuss the problem. By doing this, you could avoid the courtroom, although I believe the Family Court or Children's Court is fairly user friendly.

You may wish to speak with an attorney-at-law or the clerk of court at the Family Court/Children's Court or the Resident Magistrate's Court.

Keith N. Bishop is an attorney-at-law and partner in the firm of Bishop & Fullerton. He may be contacted by email at knbishop@gmail.com or by text at 779-2871.