Contact between mother and child set at twice a year

A 12-year-old girl had been in a foster home since she was three, with very limited contact - lately only once a year - with her biological mother, who had sole parental responsibility. The Supreme Court found that the contact should now be set at two hours twice a year. It was stressed that reunification was still the goal, but that this had to take place in the future. The mother's competence in contact situations was good, but the daughter had still had extensive psychological and physical reactions after each session. It was assumed that very limited contact would not be an obstacle to reunification if the situation allowed it, and it was stated that the number of contact sessions and the length and form of the sessions had to be assessed on a continuing basis. A request for an interim measure was ruled inadmissible on the grounds that the interim measure rules cannot be applied alongside the special procedural rules in section 36 of the Dispute Act.

Read the ruling from the Supreme Court (PDF)

Area of law: Child welfare. Contact rights. 

Key paragraphs: 73–76, 89

Justices: Indreberg, Noer, Kallerud, Ringnes, Høgetveit Berg