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Dear all,
I am revving up for court action to have my contact with my kids re-instated. I've just read Darren's story on this website and there are a number of similarities between his and my own story. Can anyone tell me if a single issue order can be dealt with at the same time as a contact hearing?
The libel bit! Contact was stopped via lawyers letter from my ex in which it stated that I had, along with my Dad been reported to Strathclyde Police and the Social Work department in the local council for our 'actings' in respect of my kids. We investigated this and discovered that a complaint had been made to the police about my Dad, (it was very quickly kicked into the long grass on the basis that it was all a lot of nonsense). The social work department were informed but only as a matter of course. Neither the Police nor Social work had EVER had my name passed to them in any respect, about this alleged 'incident' or any other!
Because of this, as I see it, libelous accusation made, I have now not seen my kids for 2 and a bit weeks and counting. As a high school teacher and so in the interests of openness with my work, I kept them informed of everything that had been going on.
I felt that they behaved rather differently towards me for the time that I was apparently under investigation.
As a result of the stress over the situation, I spent a night in hospital, experiencing chest pains and palpitations.
The day that contact was stopped happened to be my birthday. The weekend approaching, the first one that contact had been stopped for was my oldest daughters birthday weekend. A party that I had planned and organised for her that weekend had to be cancelled but even before I had a chance to do this I discovered that all the parents had already been contacted by my ex to say she had rearranged the party and was now having it at her house. I'm deeply concerned that these parents will now see me in a very different light, perhaps even shun me if I was to plan a party next year for my oldest. She also missed a trip to the ballet after having had the chance to meet the principal dancers, see the costumes up close etc etc a week or two before.
It was a libelous accusation made to deny me access to the kids, causing me damage personally and professionally, as well as causing the kids distress. Do we reckon then that this sounds like the basis for a libel action against my ex?
Sorry dont know any thing about libel cases, but Im shocked to hear your wifes lawyer would write such a letter, I know they have to act on the clients behalf but this is extreme stupidity. I wouldnt have thought you could do the two together but it is the reason the contact stopped so it would come up at the hearing. Dont wast any time get the c100 filled in and send off with out delay.
Im sorry you ended up in hospital, stress is a awful thing, your ex sounds a nasty women and the more I read on here the more gob smacked I get with what women will do to be in control, good luck
I'm not an expert on libel law on either side of the border, but I would recommend that you concentrate soley on the issue of contact. She hasn't made the allegations public, so I imagine you have very little chance of proving libel. It also costs an extortionate amount of money to make a case for libel.
My ex made a similar allegation against me designed to hinder my application for contact and on hindsight such things are designed to wind us up and get us to lash out. To be honest most courts can see straight through it, but you need to remain reasonable. The more angry and incensed you feel the more you fall into her hands. Certainly raise the issue in court and state how objectionable you found these allegations, but they're not true and your sole interest remains the welfare of your children.
You need to speak with your solicitor about the best way to deal with this. Do not make an issue out of your hospitalisation, as she may even use it to question the state of your health and whether you're fit enough to have the children on an unsupervised basis. Don't give her anything to throw back at you. Soak it up for now.
Aside the advice given above to concentrate on contact (which is absolutely what you should be doing), I would personally forget the idea of any libel action unless both you and your ex are very wealthy (if your wife is wealthy and you aren't, you could try to persuade a solicitor to take the case on a contingency basis) you are talking possibly 6 figure sums in legal costs and if you lose, you pay your ex's costs.
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