SINGAPORE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Loh Wai Mooi, Wang Liansheng, Petrina Tan and Vaithieiswariy Kumar, Bih Li & Lee LLP
• the name, description and address of the commit ‑ tal applicant and respondent; and • the grounds on which the committal order is sought, which should include details of the alleged breaches by the committal respondent of the judg ‑ ment, order or direction (as applicable), as well as the date on which the judgment, order or direc ‑ tion will be served on the committal respondent (a penal notice generally accompanies the judgment, order or direction when served on the committal respondent). At the second stage, and if permission is granted, a party needs to file (within 14 days) an application for the committal order. Permission lapses if the sum ‑ mons is not filed within this timeframe. No further sub ‑ stantive affidavit is needed under the second stage. After an affidavit (if any) is filed by the committal respondent, the parties then attend the trial of the committal application, to determine whether a com ‑ mittal order will be made. The trial process involves cross-examination of the parties, as well as each party trying to prove the reasons for (or against) the mak ‑ ing of a committal order. Usually, a fine or term of imprisonment is sought as the committal order to be made. Such a process tends to be highly damaging to the parties’ relationship, and further entrenches any acrimony between the parties. A committal order seeks to right the wrong arising from the committal respondent’s non-compliance with the access orders made. Essentially, it seeks to punish the committal respondent, with the view that the com ‑ mittal respondent will then comply with the access orders moving forward. The new ECAO This new enforcement route is enshrined in Section 126B of the Women’s Charter 1961 and applies to court orders relating to a child’s custody, care and control, and access arrangements. In particular, while the regime only came into force on 2 January 2025, a party that has obtained an order prior to this date can seek recourse through the ECAO regime, if the breach of the order(s) occurred on or after 2 January 2025.
Without limiting the court’s powers, the party applying for enforcement of an access order against the other party may seek the following relief: • an order for make-up access, to account for the time lost with the child as a result of the breach; • an order of compensation for reasonable expenses incurred as a result of the breach; • an order for parties (including the child) to attend counselling, mediation or other family-directed therapeutic programmes; • an order for the breaching party to execute a bond to secure their future compliance with the access order; and/or • for every breach by the breaching party, a fine not exceeding SGD20,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both. Unlike a committal order, the relief provided under the ECAO regime should be more robust and should hopefully address the issues arising from non-com ‑ pliance with access orders, such that future breaches will be avoided. As mentioned above, the outcome of a successful application for a committal order relates to punishing the committal respondent for breaches of the access orders. It would be understandable if this “successful” outcome remained frustrating and discouraging for some parents – while they might have felt vindicated and have received some measure of compensation in terms of legal costs, this is a poor replacement for valuable time alone with your child. A fear that the other parent might continue to disregard the access order in the future could also persist, especially for particularly contentious cases, or recalcitrant parents. The ECAO regime seeks to address some of these concerns, and explicitly enshrines an order for make- up access as an available relief. It serves as a rem ‑ edy to parents who have lost out on precious time with their children, and dissuades other parents from breaching access orders, as there would be nothing to “gain” from doing so. The ECAO process is also more straightforward as compared to an application for a committal order – there is no need to first apply for permission to make
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