Wife runs off with a child from Poland to England after splitting from her husband. Education of their son.

Advice Please , I am English but my brother in law is Polish. He has split from his wife (Polish) and he is still living in Poland. She has come over to England with their son (14) without his knowledge to have a holiday with her brother. She has stopped here and he now goes to School here. My brother in law realises he cant do anything but wants to check on his progress at School . Any ideas , how he could do this ( there split was not a good one ) and she will not correspond with him. Thanks

Hi! If you have legal problems, don't you think seeking lawyer's help would be more appropriate? Most people in PF don't even live in Poland (many of them have never been to Poland, including alot of teenagers from US Polonia and others with no connections to Poland) and among the few of us living in Poland, no lawyer specialized in family affairs. So, what do you want us to advise you?

My only piece of advice, do spend some money and consult a lawyer! :)

Thanks for the positive advice ? I was only asking ... As we say in Yorkshire " if you don't ask , you don't get " To be fair I did not realise the information that you have stated , in fact on other threads I have had good advice . I am only trying to help my brother in law , he has lost everything including his home , wife and one of his kids . I have three boys and my wife ( polish ) works part time so we only just manage and have no savings . When I came off the phone last night I posted with emotion , I will now start investigating myself when not working . Thanks

In my view his Polish wife had no right to just take off with a child but I do not know their relationship (maybe she had to) and I'm not a lawyer (InPolska had a point), so better consult a lawyer. I do not know why you think straight away that your brother in law can not do anything now, are you a lawyer?

Well if your brother-in-law knows which district of which town his wife is living in, he could contact the secondary schools in that area to see if his son is enrolled in any of them. The best thing would be to send an email outlining the situation very briefly and in a business like manner and if he finds the school that his son is in he can then discuss the situation in more detail with the school. He has every right to do so as he still has his parental rights and parental authority. He would have a right for example to have a copy of his son's school report at the end of the year. I'm a teacher by the way and that's how we do things in Ireland which has pretty much the same system as the UK. Unless a court has stated otherwise the school has to accord the father the same rights as the mother. As the boy is living in England, English law will apply. Best of luck with it.

I understand that lawyers are expensive and that you are not in a great financial shape but instead of posting in a random forum, you could seek help from a social worker where you live or from a legal site (lawyers give free advice on various sites).

Not only nobody in PF is an expert in family law but also we only know what you have written (in order to give you pertinent advice, even a lawyer will need ALL details and also wife's version).

Good luck!

Before you waste money on a lawyer speak to reunite.org

There is plenty that can be done to resolve this properly.

There are at least 3 possible legal options here worth considering:

(at least as a lawyer I would advise you taking them into account)

1) the child's father might want to consider filing a petition according to the Hague Convention in order to force her to return to Poland with the child (quite a long and complex procedure)

2) he may try to get 1 or 2 decisions from the Polish Court (including a contact order) which would impose specific obligations on the child's mother, personal visits, skype communication, or sending school reports and photos to the child's father, etc. (the Polish court's decision should be implemented in the English court)

3) the child's father may want to get a decision from the UK court and try to implement it in the UK.

International cases involving 2 or 3 countries (nationalities) are never easy, and usually won't end within 1-2 months.

We have a law firm in Poland, so I might be able to help you with this case. If you are still interested, you can send me a private message on this forum and maybe we could help to solve this problem.