[Solved] Advice on contact rearrangement please

Hi Kieran

I would say that you are being entirely reasonable - the whole point of a contact order is to provide certainty of when contact should occur, and although both parties can generally vary it by agreement, if no agreement can be reached, then the terms of the order should be adhered to.

Your ex should certainly have consulted with you before she booked her holiday, and I presume that you have evidence that you booked your holiday before you were contacted. The problem you have is that there is no real way to enforce the contact, you can only go back to court if she fails to have your daughter available at the time, and in reality, I would doubt that a court would penalise her if this was the only occasion that contact is missed, because she is going on holiday.

I would reply to her solicitor with the evidence that you had booked your holiday before you were contacted, saying that you can't make the contact because of this, and pointing out that you have been flexible on the other two dates, and you may simply have to accept that you miss one of your contacts with your daughter, but make sure that you do something special with her on the contact before and after your holiday.

If you don't have a solicitor, then have a word with the childrens legal centre for more advice.

hi there,

there are ways to you can enforce your contact as its mentioned in the court order at the first place. Solicitors are Not the jury and cant do anything if something is already in place by the court.

Important part to remember is, we are not talking about your right or your ex's right we are talking here about your daughter's right to spend time with her mom and dad. if your daughter is happy to come with you then do take her opinion, as its always counts on priority

Note: Dont take solicitors letter more serious than court order.

hope this helps
(fellow mates can comment on my post and do correct me if wrong)

Hi kieran,

What your ex is doing is very wrong, and her Solicitor is further in the wrong by willingly acknowledging that the Court Order needs to be broken. There are far too many Solicitors involved in this practice.

On another note... if you have booked, and paid for a trip, respective of a particular day when you are due to have your child, you should contact the courts and explain to them that your ex partner has denied me seeing my child on an agreed date (that coincides with the Court Order) and i have now lost money because of this. By law you are entitled to be compensated by your ex for this.

For example if you have paid for hotel or activity fees you are entitled to have these compensated. If the matter does reach court again, you need to be clear that enforcement is not out of the question.

It may be also worth Contacting as someone has said here the Childrens Legal Centre to discuss what (if any) limitations on your compensation may be. It is/was afterall booked as a benefit for your Daughter.

Good Luck

Thanks for the advice guys.

I made an ex parte specific issue application today. I got to see a judge, explained the situation to him, but said nothing will be ordered and just sent me on my way. I mean am lost for words. It was supposed to be my time as per the contact order, which shows that the court order isn't worth the paper its written on. To add insult to injury am down just over £400. That's what you call justice. 😥

If it was the other way around and i returned my daughter a day or even a few hours late than what the court order stated i am pretty sure all [censored] would break loose and i would no doubt be punished by the courts.

Hi Kieran,

This is very unusual, did you have the opportunity to present that because this contact order has now been broken it has caused you "financial loss"?

Under the Childrens Act 1989 1989 c. 41Part II GeneralSection 11O and i quote:

(1)This section applies if a contact order with respect to a child has been made..
(2)If the court is satisfied that—.
(a)an individual has failed to comply with the contact order, and.
(b)a person falling within subsection (6) has suffered financial loss by reason of the breach,.
it may make an order requiring the individual in breach to pay the person compensation in respect of his financial loss.

Where she will have got away with this is:
(3)But the court may not make an order under subsection (2) if it is satisfied that the individual in breach had a reasonable excuse for failing to comply with the contact order.

In my opinion this Judge has not acted properly, fairly or treated the situation for its relevant merits. The main one being that you have booked a holiday when you were due to have your child. To preponderate your position further you also changed 2 of these agreed contact days.

Have you tried contacting the courts (local to you) to see if there how you will go about Challenging the judges decision and additionally seeking compensation. £400.00 is no small amount of money. You should be able to claim back part of that figure. If not then its seriously not justice and is in no way complying with the Act.

I contacted the court to see what else I can do and to my surprise I was informed the matter was listed for hearing date of the 17th August!!!

I sent an email explaining that by that time it would be too late and there would be nothing to hear but this is what I got back:

“Case to remain listed for 17 August 2011. Reasonable notice must be given to the respondent”

I dont know wheather to laugh or cry!!!

Hi again kieran,

Laugh for the time being.

I would recommend you give a break down to the courts of the cost that you have no incurred. Although the hearing will be too late they should (based on the Law i have previously stated) refund you for the expense which you have had to make. Or rather your ex should have to compensate you for that amount.

Out of curiosity, is she single? On benefits? If this is the case i'd argue that if she can afford to go on holiday she can afford to repay me. Thats a sensible and logical assumption to make.

Make sure you have everything fully prepared mind. Let us all know how it has gone on.