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Good Evening to All Dads out there,
This is my first post , so a little background. My Ex-wife without notice gave me and my partner custody of my daughter 3 years ago, this was after I had an adulterous affair and left the marriage. There was no residence order , just a letter telling me to collect her from the train station and that she wanted no more contact and I had sole custody. My partner and family have been fantastic and I have managed to keep a full time job and go on to have another child with my partner. We have been living well and my daughter is thriving. Ex-Wife has sent the odd letter and asked for contact but my daughter strenuously fights against it. She simply does not want to know her after she was dumped.
I paid her £25K to buy her out of the marital home, and a clean break order and divorce has been completed. In the child part of the divorce my daughter was stated as living with me and those arrangements were not due to change.
Okay... that is the short story.
She has now got legal aid and is taking me to court for Shared Residence and a Contact Order. I cannot afford a solicitor, what do I do ?
Hi Brian,
In broad terms the law views contact as the right of the child, not the parent. Contact is usually at the discretion of the resident parent (in this case you), but this can be challenged in court. The courts do tend to take the approach that a child is better off with regular contact with both parents, unless such contact is contrary to the welfare of the child.
Given that your ex literally dumped your daughter with you and has had little-to-no contact with her in the last three years I would think that her chances of securing a shared residence order are negligable. Playing devil's avocate I would imagine the best that your ex can hope for at this time is some form of limited supervised contact, but this would be at the discretion of the court and pursuant to a full CAFCASS report.
How old is your daughter? The court tends to value the opinion of a child who is ten or eleven more importantly than those of a 4 or 5 year old. If your daughter is adamant that she does not wish to see her mother, then this will be a consideration of the CAFCASS officer's report. CAFCASS have to consider the feelings of the child in their report and this carries more weight if the child is more mature.
As you haven't instructed a solicitor I would think that one of the adminstrators will forward your post to the Children's Legal Centre (CLC) for further advice. This does take a few days, so if time is of the essence please feel free to contact them directly. There is a link at the top of this page and you can call them for free legal advice. Many parents are opting to represent themselves and the CLC have proved to be an excellent resource for those of us that can't afford a solicitor.
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