Dear Mrs Macaulay,

My son’s father currently resides in the Cayman Islands.

Our son is now in his final year of high school. He was diagnosed with dyslexia and attends both day school and evening classes to support his learning. His father contributes $50,000 per month; however, this primarily covers daily expenses.

Recently, his father stopped contributing extra toward school-related expenses, including school fees, examination fees, back-to-school expenses, and evening classes.

Since September 2025, he insists that he is only obligated to send the $50,000. He also refuses to continue having our son visit him. He appears to have the financial capacity to contribute more meaningfully.

After I raised concerns, he stated that he would stop sending money altogether out of spite.

Can I pursue legal action in Jamaica? Can the court require him to contribute toward the other expenses? Can the court grant visitation rights so that my son may visit his father overseas?

It is so unfortunate when mothers do not ensure that the fathers of their children are bound by court orders from the inception. Had you made an application for maintenance to the Family Court and obtained an order of the court, it would have clearly ordered the father to pay the sum for general maintenance, as well as 50 per cent of all educational, medical, dental and optical expenses, and specifically state the terms of the father’s access, the dates, and since he lives abroad, that he would pay the required costs to effect the journey to him and the journey back home to you.

It is not too late for you to apply to the Family Court for the ordered maintenance contributions for your child even though your son is now in his final year of high school. But you must act quickly and go to the Family Court of your parish, pursuant to the amended Maintenance Act, which was amended in 2024 and came into force in 2025. It extends the age when applications can be made even if the child has reached age 18, and onto 23 years if the child is still pursuing their education or training.

You have not stated your son’s age, but as you can now see and understand, it matters not if he is not yet 18 or if he is already 18.

You must go to the Family Court office with a certified copy of your son’s birth certificate and information of your financial situation and clear details of all your son’s full expenses. You must disclose the diagnosis of his dyslexia (take a copy of this if you have it, or tell them that you will produce that later and before the hearing date).

You should also have ready and take with you all the information you have about your son’s father — name, address, age, profession and occupation, and any facts you have about his financial situation (photos of properties, house, cars, boats, business place, anything of value). You must also tell the intake clerk about the arrangement/agreement which you and he had, from what date, and what he contributed. You must also report that as to the issue of access, your son used to visit him, he has since then refused that your son visit him at all, and that he must pay the expenses for future travel.

Why do I urge you to go quickly to the Family Court? Because there is nothing in law to stop you from filing for the necessary orders here in Jamaica even though your son’s father resides in the Cayman Islands, which is a British Overseas Territory. It is therefore a part of the Commonwealth, like Jamaica, and has reciprocal arrangements for the enforcement of each other’s court orders.

So the father being in Cayman is not an obstruction to your son having his legal and fundamental rights ordered, for the father to meet his legal obligations as a parent.

All the very best to you both.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide private, personal responses.