What to do if your Child is Abducted to Korea?

If your child is abducted by a parent or guardian to Korea you should promptly schedule a call with IPG Legal. Your Korean law firm choice shall be, likely, the most important decision you shall make.

IPG Legal is the most experienced law firm in Korea handling Hague Child Abduction to Korea cases in criminal, civil, and family courts in Korea. IPG Legal, recently, prevailed in the most public and noteworthy case handled in the history of Korea’s Child Abduction jurisprudence.

In this case, IPG Legal exposed substantial flaws in the Korean judicial enforcement system and with the assistance and a scathing report by the U.S. State Department put substantial pressure on the Korean Government to change its practices to comply with treaty obligations under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The pressure on the Korean court system and Korean administration by the U.S. State Department and IPG Legal (the parent mentioned in this article was the client of IPG Legal) led to revisions of Korean legal enforcement procedures by the Supreme Court of Korea.

Why the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction Matters for the Return of your Child(ren)

The following article assumes that your country of residence is a party to Hague Child Abduction Convention and your child(ren) was abducted by a parent or guardian and brought to the Republic of Korea. The Hague Abduction Convention is a treaty acceded to by over 100 countries.

The main purpose of the Convention is to:
“protect children from the harmful effects of international abduction by a parent by encouraging the prompt return of abducted children to their country of habitual residence. and to organize or secure the effective rights of access to a child. The idea is that custody and visitation matters should generally be decided by the proper court in the country of the child’s habitual residence. The Convention focuses on the child, providing a shared civil remedy among partner countries.”

U.S. State Department, Important Features of the Hague Abduction Convention – Why the Hague Convention Matters

Things to Immediately Do if Your Child(ren) is Abducted to Korea

The following article assumes that your country of residence is a party to Hague Child Abduction Convention

1. Immediately Schedule a Call with our Child Abduction Law Team at IPG Legal. We shall file all actions needed including Hague Child Abduction Petitions, Korean Civil Cases, Korean Family Law Cases, and Korean Criminal Cases in Korea. It is important to get the process moving quickly to comply with filing timing deadlines.
2. Discuss with IPG Legal the need to hire an attorney in your home jurisdiction. In some cases it is advisable to hire an attorney in your country/state of residence to file criminal and civil cases in your home jurisdiction. In many cases we have attorneys we have worked with in the past that can be of assistance. The majority of our clients reside in the United States, Canada, or Europe and we have contacts in these jurisdictions of lawyers experienced in working with Korean law firms on these matters. The reality is the most important aspect in the safe return of your child(ren) is prevailing in the actions in Korea.
3. Contact the authority that handles child abduction matters in your country and inform them that you have hired attorneys to assist you with this matter. Give the contact details of the officer you spoke with to your lawyers. Your lawyers shall reach out to this officer and also the corresponding government officials in Korea. The U.S. State Department is in charge of Child Abduction matters for children abducted from the United States to Korea.
4. Compile all evidence establishing that your child(ren) was abducted. We recommend erring on the side of caution and include all evidence you have available. If the information is voluminous your lawyer can provide a secure link to upload the documents.
5. Compile all evidence establishing that the “habitual residence” of your child(ren) was in a country outside of Korea. We recommend erring on the side of caution and including all evidence available.
6. Make a list of witnesses that may be useful and detail why you believe the witness may be useful. In many cases, statements from these witnesses may be useful.
7. Make copies of the birth certificate, passport, and other identification documents for your child(ren), yourself, and the abducting parent.
8. Make a comprehensive timeline of events leading to the abduction.
9. Make a copy of any police reports, court cases, or other actions filed in any jurisdiction.
10. Keep calm and don’t let the abducting parent entice you into making any evidence that may indicate that you are not mentally and financially stable. You should be angry, but we should not express your anger on calls, texts and emails.
11. Obtain any evidence available indicating the suspected location of your child(ren) in Korea. In our experience the abducting Korean parent usually resides with the Korean grandparents of the child(ren).

How to Get your Child Back from the Abducting Korean Parent

One we get the information from you noted above, IPG Legal shall fight to establish that your child must be returned to your residence. If your country is a signatory to the Hague Child Abduction Convention we shall fight in a Korean court to establish, in order to meet the requirements of the Convention that,:

1. Your child(ren) was “habitually resident” in your jurisdiction;
2. The removal of the child(ren) from the “habitual residence” was a wrongful/illegal act that infringed on your parental and/or custodial rights that you were exercising;
3. The Hague Child Abduction Convention was in force between the country of your residence and Korea; and
4. Your child(ren) are under the age of 16.
   

Defenses of Korean Removing Parent to our Petition for Return of a Child

Under the Hague Child Abduction Convention, a Korean court may deny the return of an abducted child(ren) if one of the defenses noted below is proven to apply. IPG Legal, frequently, sees abducting parents manipulating evidence and children in order to prove that one of the following defenses applies. Keep calm and let us work together to get the record straight.

1. A grave risk to the child’s mental or physical health exists that would place the child(ren) in an intolerable situation if the child(ren) were returned to the habitual residence of the child(ren).
2. A child(ren) of a mature age objects to the return. Court in Korea do consider the issue of parental alienation.
3. More than one year passed since the abduction of the child.
4. The party petitioning for return consented to the child’s removal and retention.
5. The return of the child(ren) violates the fundamental principles of human rights in Korea.
6. The party petitioning for return did not exercise custodial rights at the time of removal of the child.

In most cases, the most important choice you shall make is your choice of your lawyer. choose carefully, many lawyers have articles on this matter, but they have little high-level experience.

IPG Legal is rated a Top Dispute Resolution Law Firm and a Top 10 Law Firm in Korea. Sean Hayes, a foreign attorney with IPG Legal, is rated a Top 100 lawyer by LawAsia. He is the first non-Korean lawyer to work for the Korea court system. He works on these cases with a senior retired Korean court judge that is rated one of the top litigators in Korea and one of the most experienced and respected family law attorneys for expats.

If you would like to schedule a call with an attorney, please schedule a call at: Schedule a Call with an Expert on Korean Child Abduction Law.