Child Maintenance and Custody in Morocco: How It Is Decided

How the judge sets the amount

• The father's actual means (salary, business income, assets).
• The child's situation and needs.
• The cost of living and the customs of the family's social background.
• What maintenance covers: food, clothing, medical care, schooling and anything considered essential.
• The child's housing, assessed separately from maintenance (article 168), and payment for custody.
• The judge relies on the parties' statements and evidence and may order an expert assessment.

Custody: the key rules

• Custody (hadana) goes first to the mother, then to the father, then to the maternal grandmother, unless the child's interests require otherwise.
• At 15, the child may choose which parent will have custody.
• A mother's remarriage does not automatically mean she loses custody, particularly where the child is under 7.
• The non-custodial parent has visiting rights, arranged by agreement or set by the judge.
• Taking the child abroad may require the other parent's consent or the judge's authorisation.

Step-by-step procedure

• Step 1: claim maintenance within the divorce proceedings or by a separate application to the family section.
• Step 2: gather evidence of the payer's income and of the child's expenses.
• Step 3: hearing and, if necessary, an inquiry or expert assessment of means.
• Step 4: judgment setting maintenance, housing, custody and visiting.
• Step 5: enforcement, preferably by direct deduction from the payer's salary.

Documents to prepare

• Marriage certificate or divorce judgment.
• Birth certificates of the children.
• Proof of the father's income (payslips, employer's certificate, trade register).
• School, medical and rent invoices.
• Proof of enrolment for adult children still in education.

Time limits, review and enforcement

The court must rule on maintenance claims within one month at most. The amount set cannot in principle be reviewed before one year has passed, except in exceptional circumstances such as loss of employment or a sharp rise in the child's needs.

Refusing to pay maintenance ordered by a court may constitute the offence of family abandonment under the Criminal Code. Where enforcement proves impossible, a divorced mother may, subject to conditions, apply to the Family Mutual Aid Fund.

Common mistakes

• Providing no evidence of the father's income, which leads to minimal maintenance.
• Forgetting to claim the child's housing, which is separate from maintenance.
• Accepting cash payments without receipts.
• Letting arrears build up instead of seeking enforcement promptly.