Hi,
A bit of background, I've separated from the wife for 5 years after having some mental health problems and sending her a text message that I had thoughts of killing her, the children and myself (was under a lot of stress at work and had heavy financial pressures). I underwent treatment for severe depression at a local psychiatric hospital but unfortunately she had already raised criminal proceedings against me for which I was charged/convicted with sending a malicious communication and sentenced to a 5 month suspended sentence along with a non mol of 2 years.
In the meantime I have not seen or heard from our 3 wonderful children. I have been better for over 3 years now and tried to get contact with them but she's saying they don't want to talk to me.
I finally brought up the courage to apply for a C100 without a solicitor as although I'm in a pretty good job I can't afford a solicitor.
I'd appreciate your thoughts on the folllowing
1) Likelyhood that my mental health 5 years ago will have a big bearing on contact with the children today. I have a psychiatrists letter saying that I am fine to be with my children.
2) Whether I should go down the parental alienation route (I am sure she's been telling the kids bad things about me)
3) Whether it's worth trying to stretch to getting a barrister for the court hearing(s) (she will have a solicitor and barrister, ironically funded by me)
Any other thoughts/comments appreciated, I'm only looking for initial remote contact and maybe building up slowly to face to face contact.
Thanks
hi,
it's likely your ex will raise the mental health issues you had in past, and court will likely ask for a GP letter to show past and present condition. I don't think it's good idea to accuse of parental alienation. With right guidance you can self-represent at court. with barrister your looking at minimum cost of £1000 for the day, and 1st hearing could last 1 hour or less. It is very process driven.
Thanks, I have heard from the Families Need Fathers group that it's possible to get a barrister for £600 a day via the direct access scheme but not sure how good they'll be.
I'm thinking of self representing, I know what I have to say and as you say it's only an hour at most for the initial hearing
You can get info from the advicenow.org.uk website. They have a range of info covering child contact and representing yourself at court. If the children are older and don’t want to see you it’s likely the court won’t make an order saying they should. If it’s younger children then expect contact to be supervised at a contact centre in the first instance
