This month Benjamin and Heather fielded questions about family matters from the community. Here are the questions addressed in this podcast.

•What are the consequences for a mother if she takes her children and restricts access to the father for many month before the court takes control? And if the father were to do the same, would the situation play out the same?

•I need to divorce my husband but he is in Ghana and I'm not sure if I can get papers to him. Can the papers be emailed to him to be formally served?

•My son is 44 and we have just located his father for the first time since my son was born. Is it possible for me to claim back child support for all the years when I had to look after our son on my own?

•My wife and I agreed it was time to separate a few months ago and I moved out to my own apartment. We are young and don't have much in the way of assets and no children, so we've pretty much sorted out the money side of things on our own. I want to move on with my life so I've completed all the paperwork to file for divorce, but my wife now refuses to sign. What should I do?

•My husband and I married almost 10 years ago and at that time he was a widower with a 2 year old daughter. That child is now 12 and from my point of view she is my daughter since I have raised her for most of her life. We have since had 2 more children who obviously think of her as a sister. My husband and I are now planning to separate and I'm wondering what rights I have with regard to custody or visitation for my 12-year-old daughter? Will she be separated from our other two children?