The recent case of a Danish father who was reunited with his five-year-old son after an 18-month international manhunt for the child and his mother is an enormous success for the offices of Benita Ardenbaum Attorney.
This international case required expertise in Hague Convention matters relating to the abduction of children. Fortunately with the wealth of experience which Benita has acquired in her 27 years of practising family law we were able to successfully bring an application before the Durban High Court for the return of the minor child to Denmark, under The Hague Convention.
The perseverance of Benita and the Durban Private detective instructed by Benita was insurmountable. Whilst, the return of the minor child to his father could not have come sooner, the procedure in bringing an application of this magnitude and of this nature requires that the course of the law is followed, which includes the necessary processes in accordance with the Rules of Court. Fundamentally, the law caught up with the mother who had taken the law into her own hands. It was only a matter of time before the mother and the minor child were located.
We advocate that our offices truly do go above and beyond what our attorney/client mandate requires us to accomplish in dealing with our client’s matters. We have a genuine invested interest in all of our client matters whether they be local, national or international. This genuine invested interest was witnessed first-hand by those who were in attendance at Court on 11th August 2021, the day when the minor child was located, when Benita immediately launched a High Court application to have the minor child placed in the care of the social worker pending the arrival of the father in South Africa. The application, which was brought before judge Olsen, was proceeding in the normal course when the mother got up and bolted out of the courtroom. It was Benita who saved the day! In an interview with The Sunday Times Benita said, “I was on high alert. I jumped up from my seat and chased after her, and just managed to stop her as she grabbed the child, who was outside the courtroom. She was either going to jump over the railings on the second floor or she intended running from the court to once again evade justice”.
This case, in which the Judgement has now been reported, is a resounding success for our firm, and we have been fortunate enough to secure further international cases since the victorious outcome of this matter.
For full details about the case as written by the Sunday Times newspaper please visit the following link :
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Author – Kate Bailey – Hill
