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As above really. Has anyone ever had, or knows of an example of a enforcement order being accepted and what punishment was dealt out.? It seems courts are very tight on accepting them and only seem too in exceptional circumstances.
I believe there has been a custodial sentence handed down but it's very rare and I have only heard of it. We have a member called Dad-i-d who has pursed enforcement and his ex is quite close to some kind of punishment if she breaches again. The court will always accept the application for enforcement, they just don't act on it.
Yes.....if you can prove she is breaking the order
I have had 3yrs of battling my ex who has continually broken contact orders I was awarded. The back end of last year I applied for the order to be enforced, she failed to attend the hearing and it got delayed a month then when she turned up she was given a right dressing down by the judge on the seriousness of her breaking court orders and refusing to attend court.
The ex had nothing to back her up that I couldn’t disprove and I was awarded the enforcement of contact order.
The penalties set out were if she broke it she’d could be found in contempt of court and face imprisonment.
The reason for this is that they would not apply a fine as that directly takes money out of the child's pocket (despite getting 15% of my reasonable income!) she doesn’t work!
They could make her do unpaid work – Community service…..again in my case the ex had been breaking way too many orders that my argument was that it would not be enough of a deterrent to her and would be too easy for her to get out of with “illness” or excuses.
They could also force change of residence of my son from her to me, whilst I would love that to happen I thought the best course would be to ask for the penalty to be imprisonment knowing that it would be a suspended sentence and she would be more likely to stick to that.
The change of residence being something that I would ask for if she broke the enforced order so that I would have our son while she was imprisoned.
And yes earlier this year she broke that order too, although I was able to show she had broke it I hadn’t filled the Application for Committal correctly and so she got her “get out of jail card” but she was told by the judge that had I correctly filled in the Committal Application he would have granted it as it was clear to him she had broken the orders but with the legal paperwork side not done correctly he couldn’t commit her to prison on that side of things.
Put it this way she was a very lucky woman that day! and she won’t be so lucky next time as I will find a way to get the Committal Application done legally correct so she will not escape prison!
Since the Committal hearing in July things have been going as per contact order with hardy any issue, there was a couple of times in the first few weeks where she tried to gain control of the contact again but she was quickly told that the Committal Application wouldn’t be incorrectly filled in next time…….so things are going well now.
My honest advice is……..if she is breaking orders take it back to enforce with penalties but you need to have documented proof she’s breaking them!
Dad-i-d
Did you file for enforcement by yourself or with a solicitor? Is it as simple as submitting the form along with the original court order? Or is there more too it. Thankyou in advance.
I’ve been self-representing the last 18mth or so, I asked for advice on this from members here too and got some great help and advice.
I’m not fobbing you off but there are loads of posts here in this forum if you do a search on Enforcement Orders or enforcing contact orders. (The search box is up in the top header on this site)
You need a C79 form to apply for enforcement of the contact order. Again a quick internet search will find you the form to download.
In it you need to say why it is needed and then be able to prove it by way of documented evidence. Its fairly simple to do and the members here will be able to offer you advice where I’m unable to.
You’ve had contact orders awarded so this should be fairly straight forward for you, keep it focussed on whats in the best of your child/children.
And why the court order broken at will by your ex should not be tolerated by the courts.
When you are in court I would also ask for reasonable penalties to be put in place to focus your ex’s mind on the consequences of her breaking the orders.
1. Prison (Suspended sentence)
2. Change of Residence (Transfer the child/children to live with you)
3. Financial penalty – Fine.
4. Un-paid work (Community service)
I would go in with them in that order as well. Fines and Community service are not strong enough penalties for people who continually break orders in my opinion.
If your ex realises that what she is doing she could lose the kids or face prison she may well stop the controlling of contact and “play ball”……if she doesn’t then its her own fault for stopping the kids seeing their daddy!
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- Shout – text the word ‘Shout’ to 85258
