Maintenance

No cross-border recovery of maintenance may be effective unless two fundamental conditions are met. Firstly, a legal framework has to be created either by an international convention binding upon the states or by applying a reciprocity principle between the affected states (i. e. the affected states cooperate in recovery of maintenance even if they are not bound to cooperate by an international convention). Secondly, it is necessary that the contracting states do in fact perform the international obligations they have agreed upon.

Based on long-term experience, the Office has been quite successful in recovering maintenance from Germany, Austria, Slovakia, the U.S. and Australia. On the other hand, the attempts to recover maintenance from Arabian, Asian, African, Latin-American (including Cuba) states, from the succession states of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the former Soviet Union tend to be the least effective ones.  Quite regularly, it is of no importance that some of the states concerned may in fact be contracting states bound by international convention. Similarly, cooperation with Italy, Greece and Israel is not without certain obstacles.

Maintenance cannot be enforced unless there is a legal basis for enforcement, i. e. domestic or foreign court order imposing an obligation to pay maintenance on particular person. Czech court orders are not automatically enforceable abroad. Prior to enforcement, they have to be recognized by a court or other authority having jurisdiction over the obligor. Recognition is granted provided that relevant conditions are met (conditions for recognition are usually specified in bilateral or multilateral agreements, or they are the subject to reciprocity agreement). In general, Czech court orders cannot be recognized and enforced abroad where the obligor has not been aware of the Czech court proceedings and could not effectively defend his/her rights.

In principle, Czech court orders cannot be recognized and enforced abroad where at the time of the court proceedings the place of residence of the obligor was unknown and the obligor was thus represented in court by a guardian ad litem. (§ 29 of the Civil Procedure Code, Act No. 99/1963 Sb.).