Committee drafts changes in family law in effort to alleviate children’s burden in divorce cases

The party representatives agreed on basic points

The legal drafting committee of the Greek Parliament, chaired by the former prosecutor of the Supreme Court and president of the Family Law Society, Ioannis Tentes, submitted to the Minister of Justice its proposal to amend provisions of the Family Law concerning the joint custody of children in case of divorce so that parents can agree together on matters of custody, etc.

It is an attempt to reduce as much as possible the mental stress of minors when they are caught between a parental divorce.

The Minister of Justice, Konstantinos Tsiaras, is trying to bring about a reconciliation in the relations of the divorced parents for the joint care of their children and their other daily problems, in order to avoid deadlocks and conflicts that have detrimental psychological effects on the minors.

According to the proposals, joint and equal parental care of children by divorced parents is introduced, which restores equality between parents and children. This establishes the possibility for them to have a common role and say in making decisions about their children’s lives, such as naming, choosing a school etc.

Another innovation is the introduction of the presumption of communication time of the parent who does not live with his child, who can not be less than 1/3 of the total communication time.