Divorce or separation is not always the only—or even the best—solution. The end of a relationship brings difficult emotions, uncertainty, and challenges that affect not only you, but above all your children. Before taking the next step, it’s worth asking an important question: Can our relationship still be repaired, or have we truly reached the end?
Parental Agreement and Parenting Plan
Child Care and Parenting
Best Interests of the Child
What is it?
The fundamental principle of Czech family law. Every decision concerning a child must promote the child’s safety, healthy development, and long-term wellbeing.
What does it mean in practice?
If the parents cannot reach an agreement, the court will always determine which solution is in the child’s best interests.
Parental Responsibility
What is it?
Parental responsibility is the collection of parents’ rights and duties towards their child. It includes, in particular: caring for the child, raising and educating the child, legally representing the child, managing the child’s affairs, and making decisions about important aspects of the child’s life.
What does it mean in practice?
Separation or divorce does not remove parental responsibility. Both parents continue to hold parental responsibility unless a court decides otherwise. One parent cannot unilaterally restrict or remove the other parent’s parental responsibility.
Child Participation and the Child’s Right to Information
What is it?
Children have the right to receive age-appropriate information about what is happening and to express their views. Parents should explain changes resulting from separation or divorce in a sensitive manner that reflects the child’s age and level of understanding. This does not mean that parents should read court applications or settlement proposals to the child. Information should always be presented from the child’s perspective and should focus only on matters that directly affect the child. Financial issues are adult matters and should not place an emotional burden on children. Parents should also explain to the child why some of their wishes cannot always be fulfilled.
What does it mean in practice?
A child’s views should be heard and taken into account. However, the child is not responsible for the final decisions made by the parents or the court. Children also have the right to receive information from the court, the child’s legal representative, or other professionals involved in the proceedings.
Shared Parenting
What is it?
Shared Parenting is an arrangement in which both parents jointly care for the child without a court order prescribing a fixed parenting schedule. This does not mean the parents have no agreed routine—they are still expected to agree on how care will be organised in practice.
What does it mean in practice?
Shared parenting requires a high level of cooperation, communication, and mutual trust between the parents.
Parenting Schedule
What is it?
Under current Czech law, apart from shared parenting, there are no longer different legal “types” of parenting arrangements. Instead, the court or the parents determine when each parent is responsible for the child’s care.
What does it mean in practice?
A parenting schedule usually sets out: the regular weekly routine, school holidays, public holidays, handover arrangements, the times and places where the child is transferred between parents.
Parenting Capacity
What is it?
Parenting capacity refers to a parent’s ability to care for their child. This includes the parent’s ability to guide and support the child safely through the challenges associated with parental separation or divorce.
What does it mean in practice?
When making decisions, the court may consider factors such as a parent’s ability to: cooperate with the other parent, respect the other parent’s role, provide the child with a safe and stable environment.
Safe Environment
What is it?
A Safe Environment is one in which a child can grow up free from risks to their physical or psychological wellbeing, and where their needs are recognised and respected.
What does it mean in practice?
When making decisions about parenting arrangements, the court always considers whether the child will be provided with a safe and stable environment. In cases involving domestic abuse, serious substance misuse, mental health conditions, or other circumstances that may place the child at risk, the court may limit parenting arrangements or impose additional protective measures. However, the existence of a medical condition, disability, or mental health diagnosis does not automatically mean that a parent is unable to care for their child. Each case is assessed individually, with the child’s best interests remaining the overriding consideration.
The Court, ODSPOD, and Professional Assistance
OSPOD (Authority for the Social and Legal Protection of Children)
Child’s Guardian ad Litem (Collision Guardian)
What is it?
A guardian ad litem represents the child during court proceedings where the child’s interests may differ from those of the parents. Where parents reach an agreement that is submitted to the court for approval, a guardian ad litem is generally not appointed. In most cases, this role is carried out by OSPOD.
What does it mean in practice?
The guardian ad litem acts solely in the child’s best interests and provides the court with an independent opinion regarding the child’s welfare.
Interim Decision
What is it?
An Interim Decision is a temporary court order regulating the arrangements between the parents and the child until a final decision is made. It remains in force for a maximum of three months, and in most cases it cannot be appealed. The court issues an interim decision only after hearing the views of all parties involved, including the child where appropriate. Applications for an interim decision must satisfy stricter procedural requirements than ordinary applications.
What does it mean in practice?
An interim decision provides a swift solution where parenting arrangements or other important matters need to be regulated without delay. Interim decisions have replaced the preliminary measures that parents were previously able to apply for under Czech law.
Parental Obstruction
What is it?
Parental obstruction refers to a pattern of deliberate attitudes, behaviours, or strategies used by one parent to interfere with the other parent’s relationship with the child, with the aim of damaging or even destroying that relationship.
What does it mean in practice?
Examples may include: preventing contact between the child and the other parent, manipulating the child, making false allegations or spreading false information about the other parent. The court may take such behaviour into account when determining parenting arrangements, including reducing the amount of parenting time allocated to the obstructive parent.
Expert Report and Professional Opinion
What is it?
An Expert Report is an independent assessment prepared by a court-appointed expert in a relevant field. A Professional Opinion is prepared by another suitably qualified specialist.
What does it mean in practice?
In recent years, court-appointed experts have been used less frequently, as most parents are considered capable of caring for their children. There is currently a shortage of court experts, meaning an expert report may take up to a year to complete and can be very expensive. An assessment of a family of four may cost around CZK 80,000. For disputed issues that a judge cannot assess independently, courts increasingly rely on professional opinions. However, the specialist should assess both parents and the child, sometimes on more than one occasion.
Professional Support Provider
What is it?
A Professional Support Provider may be a psychologist, therapist, mediator, or another qualified professional who helps children and parents cope with the challenges associated with separation or divorce.
What does it mean in practice?
In some cases, the court or OSPOD (the Authority for the Social and Legal Protection of Children) may recommend seeking professional support. The aim is to support the child, improve communication between the parents, and help the family find solutions that are in the child’s best interests.
Child Support
Child Support
What is it?
Child support is a financial contribution towards the child’s needs. Both parents always have a legal duty to support their child financially. In principle, the court determines each parent’s contribution, although in justified circumstances it may order only one parent to make payments.
What does it mean in practice?
Child support is determined based on the child’s needs and each parent’s financial circumstances and abilities. Parenting time and child support are separate legal issues, although they are interconnected. The amount of time each parent spends caring for the child influences the amount of child support that may be ordered.
Duty to Provide Financial Support
What is it?
The duty to provide financial support is the legal obligation of both parents to contribute to meeting their child’s needs. This obligation exists regardless of whether the parents live together or have separated or divorced.
What does it mean in practice?
Supporting a child financially is not the responsibility of only one parent. Both parents contribute according to their financial means, earning capacity, and overall circumstances. The amount of child support also depends on the child’s needs and the amount of time each parent spends caring for the child. Whether one parent has little or no contact with the child—or whether the other parent prevents contact—does not remove the legal obligation to provide financial support.
