THE threat of poverty has hung over many Scots since June’s Brexit vote. But for very few is it quite so real or quite so immediate as it is for Ava McLeish and her family.
That is because the fifty-something mum-of-two is waiting for the European Union to force tens of thousands of euros in unpaid child support out of her ex. And she feels she is running out of time.
READ MORE: Beyond Brexit: Divorce and custody rulings may be in jeopardy post-Brexit, legal experts warn
“I am in a race with Theresa May,” Ava explains. “We need to get our money before she triggers Article 50 and all the systems for helping us start to fall apart. If Brexit goes ahead, or even if the process starts, everything will be up in the air. My children will be left with nothing.”
Ava’s former husband is Italian, a wealthy executive for an international company. The pair lived together in Scotland and then in Spain before they split after 18 years of marriage. Ava, a mature student, has a court-enforceable document saying he owes her child support. But her ex has not paid. If he was living in Britain, the Child Support Agency would be responsible for ensuring he did so.
Because her ex is in Italy, Ava has to pursue him through what are called Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders (Remo) procedures overseen by the European Union.
As with some CSA claims, it has not been easy: Ava’s former partner has proved elusive. But her lawyers are confident.
“They keep saying that our case will be resolved and I am sure that it will be, given time,” she says. “But thanks to Brexit, we haven’t got unlimited time.”
Ava - not her real name - says she gave up her home to pay for her husband to get an education and then gave up her own career to look after their children. Courts agree with her.
She has borrowed to pay legal fees, has been chased by her ex’s creditors and is now relying on welfare. Ava has one particularly nagging worry: Brexit provides an incentive for her ex to stall, to avoid and delay.
She will not be alone in facing heartbreak. Family law experts now fear that the entire European architecture of family law will now break down. So divorce settlements in Scotland, for example, will no longer be automatically recognised in France.
So child custody decisions from Northern Ireland will no longer be automatically be respected in the Republic. Or, worse, that two courts in two different countries could come to quite different judgments.
READ MORE: Beyond Brexit: Economics will 'drive move to second independence referendum' in Scotland
It may well be that the current Remo arrangements could be renegotiated. That may mean that some deal can be struck to help Ava, perhaps bilaterally between the UK and Italy. But all of that could take years, years Ava which and her children do not have. “If Remo ends,” she concludes. “I shall have to declare myself bankrupt and end up a burden on the taxpayer. Where is the sense in that?”
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