CONVENTION CASES

Our lawyers have extensive experience in settling disputes relating to the Hague Conventions of 1980 (on child abduction) and 1996 (on jurisdiction and applicable law in family matters). In 2/3 of all the cases the lawyers represented the interests of Russian citizens, and in 1/3 the interests of foreign citizens.
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We manage to achieve success both starting from the court of first instance and in the course of the appeal, i.e. in the Court of Appeal and Cassation (even after reconsideration of the case in the first and appellate instances). Moreover, four cases were particularly mentioned by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in the thematic review of the judicial practice.
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As for the 1980 Convention, lots of cases on refusal of children’s return have been won, and the orders on the return of the children have also been obtained, including actual transfers of the children to their permanent residence states.
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It is worth particularly pointing out our victories in disputes about rights of access relating to the 1980 Convention, even including those with negative expert reports.
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The 1996 Convention and the Minsk Convention of 1993, which is another frequently used instrument, are often precisely and successfully applied to the acceptance and enforcement of foreign court decisions. Despite this, the lawyers have repeatedly managed to obtain refusal of the application of these international agreements and prevent the exequatur of foreign court decisions against the interests of our clients. In some cases, they also have effectively applied for bilateral agreements on legal assistance (for example, with Italy and Spain), including issues on the alimony collection.