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Walid ChamkhiAvocat, Nantes Bar

Home / Criminal defence / Not allowed to see my children

Not allowed to see my children after a domestic violence complaint: what can I do?

Being unable to see your children is an ordeal. This situation is not set in stone: the measure is provisional, and a well-prepared request often makes it possible to restore contact, first in a setting that reassures everyone.

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Where the ban comes from

  • Judicial supervision pending trial: ban on contacting certain people or going to certain places, obligation to live away from the home (article 138 of the French Code of Criminal Procedure).
  • A protection order from the family court judge: no-contact order and decisions on parental authority and visiting rights, for twelve months at most (articles 515-9 et seq. of the Civil Code).
  • A conviction: no-contact or exclusion obligations under a probationary suspended sentence, overseen by the sentence enforcement judge. The court may also rule on parental authority.

Complying with the measure: your best asset

As long as the measure has not been modified, it applies, even if the other parent contacts you again or suggests a meeting. Complying with it strictly is what will allow the judge to relax it; failing to comply would seriously undermine your request.

Asking for it to be lifted or modified

  • Judicial supervision: a request to lift or modify it can be made at any time, before the competent criminal judge depending on the stage of the proceedings.
  • Protection order: the family court judge may, at any time and at the request of either party, cancel or modify all or part of the measures (article 515-12 of the Civil Code).
  • After a conviction: the request to modify the obligations is made to the sentence enforcement judge.

Often, the realistic goal is not a complete lifting but a modification: meetings with the children in a contact centre, handover by a third party, calls at set times.

Preparing the hearing

  • Show that you have complied strictly with your obligations from the start.
  • Provide evidence of suitable housing to welcome the children, a job, support you have started: treatment, awareness course.
  • Gather statements about your relationship with the children: school, doctor, relatives.
  • Propose concrete, reassuring arrangements: contact centre, trusted third party, set times.
  • Never use the children to communicate with the other parent.

What to do now

  1. Read the decision carefully: who made it, what it prohibits, until when.
  2. Make no contact, not even indirectly.
  3. Gather your documents.
  4. Have the request filed before the competent judge.

Walid Chamkhi, avocatAdmitted to the Nantes Bar, acting in Nantes

General information, which does not replace an analysis of your situation. Fees incl. VAT: police custody €498, criminal court proceedings €1,200, lifting a no-contact order or modifying judicial supervision €720, sentence enforcement and adjustment €600, set out in a written fee agreement. See the fee schedule.