[Solved] Best route to take in Court?

Hi Macc2013,

Now Im no Judge or social worker however I am a Dad. For what thats worth nowadays. 😉

Where I am going is that unless you get some crazy judge who has no children of his own and who, well is crazy, then surely the only outcome is that your son will be instructed by the court to return home.

I think maybe the challeng could be after that. What do you think your son will do if instructed to return home?

Regards,

Dave

As Dave says seems like a no brainer.

You are his parents, he is a child who is shortly becoming a teenager with challenging behaviour. There are no parental concerns and social services have not raised any concerns.

You being reasonable people have offerered contact with the sister in law. (Unless you think there are welfare issues - having read the previous posts. If this was the case - you should have rung the police).

Your intention is to raise him in a balanced way and ensure he affords a good life and gets an education - which at present he is being prevented from doing and infact being exposed to unsafe practices which are not in the childs best interests (films 18, no school - which frankly you could argue is neglect and the social services have fallen short of their duties to safeguard the child).

I think you need to push the negatives as much as possible. The fact that they failed to foster other children you should use to show that because they failed they are using underhand tactics to coerce your son to stay with them by indulging him and allowing him to watch and play inappropriate films and games....there are age limits on these for a reason. The fact that he is not going to school is not good, but they have tried unsuccessfully to get him into a school there and they could argue this point.

Have you spoken to the school he attends? Are there any reasons why he doesn't want to return there? If not then it might be a good idea to get a letter for the school to show that he was settled and well integrated and there were no problems.

Do you have other children? Courts are loathe to split siblings up, so if he has then make a big deal out of this and how detrimental it is for the whole family to deal with. I think your strengths are the fact that you haven't forced him to return and that you provide structure and rules that although he doesn't understand it now are what is needed for him to develop and grow into a well rounded young man.

Young adolescents can be difficult and he is no different to many others that rebel against their parents ...it's just that in this instance there was an adult in th background that was prepared to facilitate his rebellion. I would call it an opportunist snatch and your sonn is not mature enough to realise that his best interests are not being served here.

I think you need to push the negatives as much as possible. The fact that they failed to foster other children you should use to show that because they failed they are using underhand tactics to coerce your son to stay with them by indulging him and allowing him to watch and play inappropriate films and games....there are age limits on these for a reason. The fact that he is not going to school is not good, but they have tried unsuccessfully to get him into a school there and they could argue this point.

Have you spoken to the school he attends? Are there any reasons why he doesn't want to return there? If not then it might be a good idea to get a letter for the school to show that he was settled and well integrated and there were no problems.

Do you have other children? Courts are loathe to split siblings up, so if he has then make a big deal out of this and how detrimental it is for the whole family to deal with. I think your strengths are the fact that you haven't forced him to return and that you provide structure and rules that although he doesn't understand it now are what is needed for him to develop and grow into a well rounded young man.

Young adolescents can be difficult and he is no different to many others that rebel against their parents ...it's just that in this instance there was an adult in th background that was prepared to facilitate his rebellion. I would call it an opportunist snatch and your sonn is not mature enough to realise that his best interests are not being served here.

He has no problems at all at school as we went up there to see his head of year and his old year 7 teacher who states they had no worries about him and that he was happy and got on with other kids and the same goes for his youth club.

we dont have other kids living at home but i have a child who lives with his mum and he comes here every 8 weeks or so and they both get on together.

i do agree with you this this could be called a opportunist snatch as the whole thing has been well planned out but have to say it seems to be going wrong for them now.

also we are hoping that if they dont turn up on Monday then the hearing will still go as it wont be good to our son if he is out of school for another week.

also if i do a letter to the judge would that help or is it best to just say things to her?

Hi Macc2013,

Now Im no Judge or social worker however I am a Dad. For what thats worth nowadays. 😉

Where I am going is that unless you get some crazy judge who has no children of his own and who, well is crazy, then surely the only outcome is that your son will be instructed by the court to return home.

I think maybe the challeng could be after that. What do you think your son will do if instructed to return home?

Regards,

Dave

This could be the problem in that if we get the order on Monday for him to come back home he may still say he wont come home because he can do what he wants and everything i have put in posts before.

but would the police remove him if a court order is in place or would we have to go back to court again if he kept saying not going home?

we do think that when he is out of there then he will go back to how he was before he went and that was a happy outgoing kid.

I think the judge might have to do a recovery order before the police would actually remove him and return him home but I'm not sure about it... Coram could probably clarify this.

If they don't turn up its hard to second guess what the judge might do. It might be helpful to update the judge with a short statement...for instance the social services decision, the fact that you have been in contact with the school and his youth club and there were no problems and the fact that it will impact on his relationship with his half brother who visits regularly. Have a copy for the other party just in case they turn up, and one for your records too.

Best of luck

The alternative is that the court would order your sister-in-law and brother to return him immediately (rather than you going to get him) - failing to do so is contempt of court. I would think (but worth checking with the judge on the day) whether you can go with the police to remove him from the home and to arrest your sister-in-law if she obstructs.

I was thinking last night why do we need to go for a Residence order when we are his Mum and Dad and this is his home?

i dont really understand that but as i do think after reading up about them a Recovery would be more in order.

Is a residence order what you have applied for?

I've just looked over your posts and see its a specific issue order ...

I think that would be what you would ask for but then if the judge upholds your application he/she would have to issue a recovery order...at least that's how I understand it. You will have time to give Coram a quick call before court and ask them, I think the lines open from 8am

Is a residence order what you have applied for?

Have to say we are not really sure as when we filled the forms out as we didnt know what order to applied we put down the Residence and prohibited steps and specific issus down on the orders applied for part on the front page of the C100 form.

also on the Notice of proceedings letter we got from the court and also what the other party got it says my and my wifes name on it and that we have applied for a order so does not state which order.

I am finding it hard to sleep and as it gets nearer i am feeling more sick about Monday as just fear it will all go wrong for our son and us.

You covered all the bases then!...well the judge will go with the order he/she thinks is most appropriate.

I do so understand that sick, sleeplessness feeling...I think nearly all of us here can totally relate to that. Just try and think about the positives, how pleasant the judge was at the previous hearing, the fact that you ARE his parents and you have good solid reasons for him to be returned home, and the fact that Social Services see no reason to be involved. He needs to get back to school and back home...the judge cant show any preference but any right minded person can see what's gone on here and give any adolescent boy the choice of school, home, rules etc or prohibited games and videos and no rules, you just know what he's going to choose.

You covered all the bases then!...well the judge will go with the order he/she thinks is most appropriate.

I do so understand that sick, sleeplessness feeling...I think nearly all of us here can totally relate to that. Just try and think about the positives, how pleasant the judge was at the previous hearing, the fact that you ARE his parents and you have good solid reasons for him to be returned home, and the fact that Social Services see no reason to be involved. He needs to get back to school and back home...the judge cant show any preference but any right minded person can see what's gone on here and give any adolescent boy the choice of school, home, rules etc or prohibited games and videos and no rules, you just know what he's going to choose.

Just a note about Social services i spoke with social worker on Wednesday when she said they were to close the case and i asked if she could email me a letter stating that so i could take it a long to court and she said yes she would but she had to get it signed off by her boss but social worker was off sick Thursday and Friday so have not got the letter.

so when i tell the judge that social worker has seen son and us and that they are closing case would she take that as true or would she want us to prove that(as in get a letter like i tried to get)?

just worried that she may say well untill she see this letter then son stays where he is or telling her this would go for us?

Could you call the SW first thing Monday morning and see if she is back off the sick? If she isn't you could ask to speak to her manager and explain that you are in court and would like some kind of email notification from them that you have all been seen by them., and if possible that the case is being closed.

During my sons case the judge actually telephoned the social worker involved when he needed clarification.....perhaps if you can get a direct line number for the social services department that's involved and if the judge asks you can tell her what the situation is, that the case has been closed but you haven't been able to get a letter to that effect and offer the telephone number.

Could you call the SW first thing Monday morning and see if she is back off the sick? If she isn't you could ask to speak to her manager and explain that you are in court and would like some kind of email notification from them that you have all been seen by them., and if possible that the case is being closed.

During my sons case the judge actually telephoned the social worker involved when he needed clarification.....perhaps if you can get a direct line number for the social services department that's involved and if the judge asks you can tell her what the situation is, that the case has been closed but you haven't been able to get a letter to that effect and offer the telephone number.

Will do that at 9am Monday morning and will have her contact details with us to take to court as well.

I am really sorry about asking so much but would we have a case under section 50 of the childrens act re Recovery order in the that son is bring unlawfully kept away from the responsible person ie mother and father or is staying away from the responsible person?

I think section 50 of the children's act refers to children in the care of the local authority....

I did mention a recovery order in a previous post and suggested you speak to Coram about it as a possibility, but having just read up on it, it might not be applicable.

I'm sorry if I have confused you....it's hard to know what powers are available to the judge in a situation like this. I do know that they have far reaching powers though. Call Coram I'm the morning, I think their lines are open from 8am.

Cant sleep so been looking at the court order we got last Monday and something has come up on it that i dont really understand.

we have another hearing on 29th Oct which they have called it The first hearing dispute resolution appointment but if she orders son back home at the hearing we have tomorrow then why would we need this other hearing in Oct?

also she said something about caffcass as well at hearing last Monday.

tell you what the more and more i think about there was no need to take this to court but we could not think what other way we had left.

I'm not legally trained and this is just my opinion....I think what might be going on here is at the judges discretion, she saw you quite quickly and it was more of a meeting than a hearing, and I think the same thing is going to happen tomorrow but with both parties there in the hope that the situation can be resolved. My feeling is that if they don't attend, or do attend and agreement cant be reached then it becomes more formal, hence the FHDRA hearing pencilled in for 29th October.

If no agreement is reached tomorrow, it is possible that the judge will grant an interim residence order but to which party? I would hope it would be to you but as the SS are saying there are no safeguarding issues, I assume that covers both parties, so the judge might decide to leave him where he is. There's no second guessing these things. It will be your job tomorrow to provide a solid argument as to why he should be returned to you in the interim, again just my opinion.

Here's a link to some information that will help you to understand court procedure and it explains what a First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment means and also the role of CAFCASS.

www.familylaw.co.uk/system/uploads/attachments/0004/3689/FPR_PD12B.pdf

...I was afraid that this situation might develop and I think I said in my very first post to you to try and avoid court at all costs for fear of opening a can of worms...its still my concern but I think the judge is trying to avoid full blown court proceedings which is a good thing, and hopefully tomorrow they will attend and this situation can be resolved.

Well we went to court today and have to say we are fuming right now.

The other party did turn up in the end and we all went into the hearing judge did not make a residence order to us or the uncle but said as son has told us that he didnt want to come home and that he will vote with his feet she was not going order then he comes home 😮

so where we are now is that they still dont have PR and then my wife had to give consent for him to go to school up there so we are sorting that out now and the judge said we should still have contact with him but then the sister in law said they want it to be supervised as we had said before that we would get a family member to go up and put him in a car and bring him home.

so judge said could we think of anyone that could be with us when we see him and each person we said about the sister in law said no to them but all the people that she came up with was her family and wife dont want that as may be trouble from sister in law family.

Also the judge has moved the hearing to where son is at the moment which we are not happy about as well so uncle and sister in law have got all what they wanted and as we left court the uncle had a big smile right across his dam face.

the judge also said that she will ask for Durham to hear it this week and maybe a care order will be made due to claims from another family member about the uncle.

we feel our son has been let down by these dam courts and feel that the uncle and sister in law feel they have won this part and now we can never see that he will come back home as he will be in a new school and court will not want to uproot him again.

also the uncle and sister in law bought in what they claimed was a letter from son saying that he wanted to stay up there due to nan being ill(she has been ill for the god dam last 9 years) but we didnt see the letter but the judge did say that she was not sure if she belived it was done by him.

so in all a [censored] day.

...I'm so sorry to hear this, the courts have let you all down. It worries me that the judge is talking about a care order, this could mean he is taken into the care of the local authority.

It is usual to use the court nearest to where the child is living, you may get a judge that has a better grasp on the situation....lets hope so. At least the proceedings are moving quickly, don't give up hope....it can seem that all is lost at one hearing only for there to be a complete turn around at the next one.

Words fail me - I really cannot believe what has gone on in court ;;)

Words fail me - I really cannot believe what has gone on in court ;;)

No i agree nor can we.

We are still in shock over it all and now are waiting for the new hearing at Durham but they still had not had the court file yet so they told us to call again tomorrow.

Well good morning all.

back in Court today so could not sleep so up nice and early to travel over to Durham.

hope it goes better then 2 weeks ago.

Hay Macc

will be thinking of you mate, hopefully some commen sense can prevail.

Oh, I've come to this late - I hope t went a lot better today than in your last hearing.

Oh, I've come to this late - I hope t went a lot better today than in your last hearing.

Well we have got son back home.

we went into court and the judge made it clear that son should be back home and back at school so after 10 mins or so he asked us all to leave the court so he could chat to the social worker that had been to see him and we came back in for him to say he was to come back home same day and social services went to remove him from uncles house and we bought him back home.

the step auntie started on the social worker so now she knows what she is like and while we was waiting outside the house there was shouting by step auntie towards social worker with son seeing it all.

has cheered up a little since being back home but keeps talking about whats been said by step auntie and how he says we only want him back for the money(step auntie would have told him that)

so he is going back to school on Friday and a hearing is down for Monday about contact for the other party but we dont have to go and during that hearing there will be a conf call with judge and social worker.

we are not happy about son going back up there to stay overnight incase this all happens again so what kind of contact could judge give them and due to the nans ill health he would have to go to her house but this all could start up again if he does that.

so have to say we did not expect all this to happen yesterday but we are pleased he is home and hope he will go back to his own self like he was before he went.

social services from here will make contact with us also this week to check on him.

also the step auntie just kept going on and on in court and even got the judge to write the address of the court down for Monday as its not at the court we was at yesterday and judge told her she has to change how she talks to people!!!!!!

our MF will be going on Monday for us as well.

hay macc that is excellent news pal. Well done to you and yours.

I would have thought there would have been a 'cooling down' period where there would not be any contact with the uncle so your son would adjust to be being back home with you.

But wow, brilliant stuff. Made my day that has.

Great news...really is.

I wouldnt let the uncle and step aunt near your son again. They seem like poison.

It would appear that the judge got the measure of them.

Stay close to SS and I would keep fighting that the uncle and aunt should be kpet away not encouraged.

Regards,

Dave

Excellent news!

Perhaps you could email your MF with a letter for the court, to express your feelings about contact. I think it would be a good idea to ask for a " settling in period" back at home before any contact resumes, to give your son a chance to get back on track. Going backwards and forwards right now will only make it harder for him to re establish his routine. It might be worth mentioning that the aunt has been upsetting him with untrue and inappropriate remarks and give examples as you have here. Even suggest that visits should be supervised by yourselves at all times to inhibit any more of this behaviour, perhaps suggest contact take place at your house.

Best of luck!

Just need some advice on this please.

Yesterday we got given a written agreement by social services about son coming back home which all of them are fine by us but we do feel that son is waiting for us to break any of them as he was on phone to uncle this morning and my wife heard him say to uncle that if they break them then he will call the social worker and think its in a hope that if he does that then he will get to go back to them.

also he said something about not having a book which we take as a book that he can write things in it.

we feel we are walking on egg shells which is wrong and feel he is just waiting for us to break the agreement and he is being told by the uncle to do this.

god we have got him back but the problems by uncle goes on.

we are thinking about asking the court on monday for a cooling off period in where they cant have any contact with son for say a set number of weeks so that he can settle in and settle in back at school but would court do that as do feel if they keep calling him and talking to him on facebook then it will cause more problems with son.

WELL DONE, Im pleased someone has seen sense. Cooling off would be a good idea - but perhaps demonstrate your happy to keep some defined skype contact etc.....

It's a difficult situation ...might it be worth talking to the Social worker about this and make them aware of the negative influence the uncle is still having, remind them of the scene they made in front of him and the fact that you still feel there is an element of grooming taking place here to try and destabilise the situation....maybe some family counselling would be in order here.

The fact that the court and social services have made the decision that the best place for your son is back at home then they should support you in this.

The one thing that has concerned me is that if grooming is taking place surely the police and social services need to be more involved especially if other children are at risk. Was this raised at court macc?

Good call on taking social services advice so if they say no - you can always say no cause SS said so....

The one thing that has concerned me is that if grooming is taking place surely the police and social services need to be more involved especially if other children are at risk. Was this raised at court macc?

Good call on taking social services advice so if they say no - you can always say no cause SS said so....

What do you mean about SS saying no?

Think he meant if anyone said anything you can say the ss have instructed you

apologies ....indeed I meant, if you discussed the issue with social services re: whether the uncle should have phone contact or in view of the profound detrimental influence he had, whether it would be best if they had no communication at all. If SS say best not to then you can tell them that SS instructed you not to do so.....

ok we have been think last night and the hearing on Monday to sort out contact for the uncle and the nan who so we have been told is now in a home due to ill health.

As we have said in another post we do not want the uncle to have stay over night contact or even any contact apart from phone calls and letters.

so for the uncle we have come up with this

No contact at all for the 1st few weeks while son gets settled back into school and settles in at home(which have to say he is doing)

then

a 30 min phone call on Tuesday and Saturday

letters

then maybe supervised contact say in contact centre due to the big risks that the whole thing could happen again then if that all went ok move onto staying contact.

Now the other problem we have is the nan due to being in a home(thats what we have been told so not sure if its true or not.

we want son to see her but it cant be done with any of them lot there just son and nan.

we would take him to see her but my wife does not want to see her due to the falling out that this has caused so we asked SS if they could have a social worker with him during the contact at the home and they said no due to them not having the staff to do it.

so is there any other group or people that works with children who could do it to be there with son while he sees his nan as she cant get to a contact centre but then again she got to the uncles house on Wed to give the social worker a gobfall!!!!!!!

any ideas on how this contact could work with uncle and nan as my wife wont go up on her own due to the risk of trouble and we want to keep the uncle and step auntie away from son while he sees his nan and he has said that is still wants contact with his nan which we want him to do even after all the trouble we have had.

what would be the courts view?

would they agree with is that there needs to be a cooling off time with ref to uncle and step auntie?

My 2 cents...

The uncle worries me immensley and I would be doing everything to discourage contact.

I call per week...no in fact a fortnight. I would have no contact for him)

Any contact to be supervised in a contact centre....not supported contact but actually supervised.

The Nan...Could you not be the facilitator for this at nursing home?

I just dont see how any judge should enforce that an Uncle or Aunt get any sort of access especialy in this case.

Is there anyone in or outside the family who could have a quiet, private and frank conversation with the uncle and aunt pointing out how it may be better for your son if they had no contact...

I agree with Dave.

No contact whilst he settles back down.

Then only supervised contact and they should have to travel to a contact centre near to you. Why should you have to cover the costs, if they want contact then they should meet the costs. You should make the point at court tomorrow that you are already out of pocket and struggling because of the court proceedings.

You could agree to indirect contact with the grandmother as long as this doesn't prove to be unsettling.

I would also be inclined to monitor your sons email and phone use for the time being and use the fact that the uncle is still stirring the situation up indirectly so a complete break for a while would be appropriate.

late again. :whistle:

Brilliant that you have him back. I don't think I can add much to what has been said above - that uncle worries me also!

I'd certainly be telling the court that you are worried that they will take your son at any opportunity and that there should be no circumstances where this would be possible, so supervised contact only or possibly only indirect contact.

late again. :whistle:

Brilliant that you have him back. I don't think I can add much to what has been said above - that uncle worries me also!

I'd certainly be telling the court that you are worried that they will take your son at any opportunity and that there should be no circumstances where this would be possible, so supervised contact only or possibly only indirect contact.

The judge said we did not need to go to Court tomorrow so our MF will be going and that was ok with the judge.

so have told her that we only want contact in contact centre for uncle so hope judge will see that is best for son.

They are going so i will expect them to think as we are not going that they can try to get all of what they want even asking the judge if son can go back to them!!!!!

I hope you also requested that it be a contact centre local to you. As you mentioned before the uncle has never made the effort to travel and visit before the snatching of your son happened....it might be too much trouble for them to make the journey....here's hoping!

I hope you also requested that it be a contact centre local to you. As you mentioned before the uncle has never made the effort to travel and visit before the snatching of your son happened....it might be too much trouble for them to make the journey....here's hoping!

Yes we agree with you and have asked that it be one near us as we feel we are doing our part by taking son to see his nan at a cost to us so think its fair that they do that to see son over here.

Well no contact was sorted out for the uncle and case has been moved back to where we live so uncle and step auntie was not happy about that as now they will have to travel.

Due to the nans ill health and with not knowing how long she has left we do think its a good idea for son to see her in the care home that she is in and have told him that so he knows that he will see her but of course we do have big big worries and have to said to him that he has to come home with us after seeing her so have made it very clear on that one.

but what if he did it again what could we do? im not sure now that he will as he is starting to settle back in at home but just in case as we are not going by car.

we have also told the uncle that he is not to be there or anyone from the step aunt,s family in case of trouble but we do think that may happen but can we really stop that happening?

we will not be going into the home but will drop him off at the front door and make sure he goes in there and make sure the staff knows he is there and will also pick him up 90 mins later.

i know some people may say we shouldnt do it but we feel its right for son to see nan only at this stage and also the judge said today that he needs to see nan but not uncle.

For what it is worth Macc, I think it is good for him see 'nan'.

Would be a whole lot worse if you didnt. Worried that you are not there in a waitng area sat with a book or something. I still dont like those places even tho I am 45, they have always gave me the creeps since I was kid and it was tough to see my own gran in one around 3 years ago when I visited.

90 minutes is a long time in one of those places in my opinion couldnt you find away to stay near by outside or in a waiting area or something.

My sentiments too Pete....I would be much happier if you were "on site".

As far as the other family turning up, I would say to them that if they go against your wishes and turn up then you will call the police and it will stop all further visits to the Nan, and effect any visits with uncle and aunt in the future.It might be helpful to telephone the local police in Durham before the visit to discuss your concerns and bring them up to date with the situation, then if any attempt is made to stop him returning home with you, the police should be willing to intervene now you have the court order.

could we get a Specific issue or a prohibited steps order which would state in it that the contact is only to take place between nan and son and due to the risk of son being taken or wanting to go back with them if they turned up?

I agree that 90 minutes is a long time, and it might be too long for your son, so I'd say hang around in case he wants to leave early anyway.

Me and my wife have been talking last night about son seeing his nan next week and as we are so worried about him not coming back again. we do think its a good idea to hold off on the visit due to the big risk and with it only being 2 weeks since he came back home.

because when we talked to him about it the other day and told him that if we go he would have to come back home he had a little smile as if to say we will see about that and also i did say to him that if we got the feeling that he would not come home then we would not go till the court sorted out there contact.

are we doing the right or wrong thing?

its just that there is a big risk in all this and im not sure that i 100% trust him to not do what he did last time.

I think you are doing the right thing, if you have a sense that he is going to try and stay there again then it's only right that you wait on the decision of the court.

my gran went to three different homes before passing, and in my experience there wasnt a specific visiting time, i would if i was you enquire with the home if they do have a specific time.

I went in the morning on a couple of times to see my gran. The staff though it was ok.

I would organise an obscure time like a morning for a 30 minute meeting and just turn up with your boy so he dosent get a chance to call his uncle to let him know he was going and also stay there the whole time. dont let him out of your sight, tell him 30 minutes, show him your watch so he knows.

just an idea

my gran went to three different homes before passing, and in my experience there wasnt a specific visiting time, i would if i was you enquire with the home if they do have a specific time.

I went in the morning on a couple of times to see my gran. The staff though it was ok.

I would organise an obscure time like a morning for a 30 minute meeting and just turn up with your boy so he dosent get a chance to call his uncle to let him know he was going and also stay there the whole time. dont let him out of your sight, tell him 30 minutes, show him your watch so he knows.

just an idea

Trouble is the town that the care home is is only little and also the uncle lives nearby as well and also we live 3 hours away so that would give son loads of time to tell uncle we were on our way.

my head is so mixed up about this as 70% of me is saying not to take the risk and the other 30% is saying it will be ok.

I think you are getting yourselves stressed out unnecessarily....had he still been with them do you think they would be trying to sort out contact with you? Just step back and. Take a little time out, you have both been under incredible strain and as it appears your son hasn't yet settled back down your emotions will be all over the place....just be kind to yourselves!

As I said before, I would wait for the court date, in the meantime try and organise indirect contact with Nan so that you can't be accused of keeping him away from them.

Just a little update for you all.

Last week we had a call from the social worker that is doing the report for the court and asked us a few things but didnt speak with son which we though was a bit strange as they must want to know what he is thinking and she also had chatted to the social worker that had seen son when he was with uncle.

son is doing well and is speaking to us as normal and he even did some cooking with me the other week and also i helped him sort his laptop out so thinks seem to be back on track with him.

we had a little bust up just over a week ago about that we would not be taking him to see his nan till court has sorted that out and we took his tablet away from him as he said some bad things to us but the next did he said sorry without us telling him to do so which must be a 1st for him!!!!!

just one thing that has got me worried and that is the lady we spoke to who is doing the court report told us that she had done police checks on us and mine came back with some things on it that i did wrong when i was younger and was having big problems like mental health problems and 1 of them was assault and that happened because i had taken a overdose of my epilepsy drugs back in 2006 and was taken to hospital but at the hospital i had hit a nurse but i didnt know what i was doing at the time(no excuse i know) and was fined for it but i am so worried that the court will think that my step son is not safe with me because i did that almost 8 years ago and have not been in trouble since.

since then i have been to court to get contact with my own son and got that as well as staying contact and caffcass did a report then as well but i am really worried about it and also not very happy as the other party will get to know as the lady said details of the police checks will be in report.

do i have anything to worry about and could the court then say ok son has to go back to the uncle?

also got the next hearing for Dec 19th and a morning hearing which other party wanted in afternoon as they have to travel 3 hours to get here so not sure if they will bother to turn up.

have to be honest could have done without hearing just 6 days before christmas.

That was 7 years ago and there hasn't been a problem since, and I would say it has absolutely no bearing on your situation now. Be honest about it (as you have just been) and I don't see it should be an issue.

As for the hearing 6 days before Christmas - just think how good your celebrations are going to be over the xmas holiday 🙂 🙂