Female lawyer says child welfare overlooked in custody battles

A female lawyer specializing in child custody cases has criticized the fact that Czech courts release children to parents abroad too easily without demanding any guarantees regarding their future welfare. Speaking at an international conference of female lawyers, Iva Jermanova from the Czech Association of Female Lawyers, said that even though the law entitles judges to postpone a child's departure until they receive sufficient background and information regarding the child’s welfare abroad they rarely bother to do so. Jermanova said it was vital to address the issue since the number of international disputes over child custody was growing in correlation to the rising number of mixed marriages.