Health and education expenses should become an extension of child maintenance payments, PL MP Amanda Spiteri Grech has said.

During a Parliamentary adjournment speech last week, the MP who is also a family lawyer by profession, said that there are several legal shortcomings when it comes to child maintenance that needs to be paid during legal separation cases and custody proceedings.

She said that as the law currently stands, when it comes to “payments for health and education (for the children), if they are not made, criminal steps cannot be taken.” She explained that in such cases, the only remedy available is for the parent with custody to seek the other party through a civil case.

“Let's establish the basics here. We are talking about health and education (payments for children). They should be given and if not, it should be considered a crime.”

Another point highlighted has to do with access to children when the parents are not together. In such cases, in accordance with the Criminal code of Malta, under Article 338, when a parent who has custody of a child refuses access to the other parent, criminal proceedings will be taken against them. However, no criminal law provision contemplates the scenario or impose any sanctions on the parent who has a right of access but does not respect the allocated time frames or does not return the child back to the parent who retains custody.

In case law dating back to 2003, even the judge in charge said that the fact that there are no laws addressing this issue “is worrying”, she said.

The family lawyer said that the law doesn’t provide for a situation where, a parent who has access, “in a capricious way and without a proper reason” does not go for their children during the allotted time, out of spite or to inconvenience the other parent. She proposed that, if it is proven that such negligence is deliberate and is repeated, the respective parent should be liable to lose the right to access.

She also proposed that, once the initial letter is sent to the Court Registrar to initiate mediation proceedings before the Family Court, the temporary residence for minors should be decided and a fixed, and basic maintenance sum should be triggered until a more formal agreement is reached.

The family lawyer also said that, to address cases where a parent repeatedly and consistently does not adhere to dates where maintenance is due, a dedicated Authority should be established and must have the power to intervene and bring an effective resolution.

This authority would also be in charge of receiving payments directly from one parent in order to pass it to the other parent. The capricious parent, she said, would even potentially be liable to a penalty and administrative fees apart from any relevant seizures.

Another point raised regarding child maintenance, she said, is that the courts must have a stable framework or formula on which to base the maintenance calculation.

One social shortcoming, the PL MP pointed out, is in cases where one parent uses parent alienation to become the favourite of the child, when there are custodial disputes. She described it as “a strategy that is used consistently and systematically, often with the help of other family members such as grandparents. This, until the children are almost indoctrinated against the other parent,” she said.

She said that in other family courts around the world, there were different measures adopted to address this phenomenon “which unfortunately is growing.”

She added that some countries have even defined this phenomenon and qualified it as a criminal offense in their legal code.

As a member of parliament, Spiteri Grech is currently trying to raise awareness on the matter and is in discussions with several authorities and stake holders in order to address the legal anomalies as soon as possible. She highlighted the importance of ensuring that children are not used as a bargaining chip.