Given that you did everything yourself in Poland, are you surprised that you had problems?
Ok here is an example for you so you understand what I'm getting at.
Firstly I spent over £5000 on legal advice in Poland in a two week period. Every penny was wasted because the lawyers we spoke too had no concept of Law outside of Poland and how international law overides Polish law. At that time I also had no concept of this.
Brussels II Bis (A convention signed by Poland) clearly states that if you are habitually resident in a country then you can start a divorce in that country. If you ask a Polish lawyer they will tell you it's impossible. In Poznan anyway.
Without checking back, I doubt I said everything in Poland as that would of been untrue. My work in Poland was to help our lawyer understand English Law and how International Law should be applied and is applied in other countries. Law is really not complicated but the language used often is. As you are more than likely aware, most of Polish law is based on the 1965 Family and Gaurdianship code. Much of which was forward thinking and much of which is outdated and aimed at keeping families together what ever the cost. The section on corporal punishment for children is quite shocking to western readers although this was updated in 2010 with an anti smacking law.
To put things into context for you, here is what happenned.
The childrens father brought them to England and on the same day beat his wife. (Regular Occurance in Poland)
She decided there and then the marraige was finished.
He agreed to leave the children in England.
Almost daily telephone conversations between father and children.
3 months later he visits children for 1 week.
Telephone conversations continue
Dec 2010 Children taken to Poland to visit Father
January 6th 2011 children were not returned and father dissapears for 3 days.
3 days later he contacts Police who do nothing as he has parental authority equal to the mothers.
Children are extremely distressed with the older child not speaking and banging his head against furniture and walls
Father thinks this is a romantic situation (deluded)
3 days later the older child is left with mother on condition she doesn't take him to a doctor
On advice from lawyer he is driven to Berlin and I bring them back to England.
Child is very distressed
Next day visit a Polish psychiatrist.
Don't believe what we hear. Both children are drugged for 3 days and on the first day one child had to be shaken to resusitate after father had held his hand over his mouth and the child had gone unconscious.
Psychiatrist confirms he believes its true as everything would be out of the childs experience and the conversation was totally natural.
Fly back to Poland with report in Polish and go to court 2 days later to try and get younger child back to safety.
Polish Court rejected all documents. This process took one and a half minutes. The judge was severely reprimanded by a higher court 3 months later
The Polish process to get out of this mess would take up to 2 years.
A little different to how we treat children in England
