[Solved] Court next week, Need any help out there!

i'm no expert in these sort of matters so i offer only my bit with regards to putting this in front of the courts.

with the earlier issues and Child Services involvment there must be records and i would assume reports made by the CS as to the previous conditions and neglect. do you have thme documented? if so make sure you have copies to hand and take with you to court (3 copies of everything - 1 for the juge the other for the ex and one for you)
ask the courts to look a the previous history and neglect as well as raising all your concerns and the comments from all CS discussions you've had.
The thing i've found through my fighting in court is to have all the evidence to back up your counter claims and to disprove your ex's allegations.
also point out that if the CS had any real worry about you looking after your child that the CS wouldn't have let you have him before!

judges are able to see through false claims and accusations these days....espcially if you have proof...make sure they see it all.

others here will have more knowledge of CS and offer help on that side.

The hearing next week will the the seccond one and the final one, I have all the reports from CS and have included them as part of my evidence to the court, quoted stuff from them and submited whole copies for them to see exactly what has happened. My x hasnt even sent me a copy of her allegations as a response to the application I made, just complete lies about our past which has no bearing on her ability as a parent, nor has she said exactly what she has done to improve things. We had a review conference in may where they said things were still bad and not enough progress had been made for the plan to be removed. As we arent great at talking they suggested a communications book which she couldnt even be bothered to write in to let me know if he had been medicated or any issues with school etc. Just shows her total lack of caring! Very frustrating!

Thanks for replying!

Oops duplicate post!

Hi Dad1987 🙂

It makes me so angry when CS behave in this way. 😡

As your son has been with you since January, is that correct?... that will be seven months and he will be settled with you, to take him away and place him back with his mother when he is still the subject of a protection plan is plain wrong and immoral! It might be worth asking to speak to the manager in charge of your new social worker and voicing your concerns about the conclusions she has drawn giving the very serious safeguarding issues.

All you can do is to present your case and all of the evidence that you have to prove she is unfit and still poses a serious risk to your son. Have you filed all of the statements and evidence with the court, if not you should do so immediately. Were you asked to make a written statement to the court? This may also be helpful as it would give you the chance to highlight all of the concerns and the timeline. There is an example of a position statement in a sticky at the top of the Legal Eagle section called "how to represent yourself in court".

I don't actually know what a 48hr access order is but you can bet I'm off right now to find out!

When courts are asked to decide on a childs future the Welfare checklist is a very important part of that. I have given you a link to the checklist. It might be a good idea to take each of the questions in the checklist and apply them to your sons situation and then address each of the questions from that perspective....in effect do your own welfare checklist.

www.thecustodyminefield.com/mobile/welfarechecklist.html

Thanks, thats very helpfull. My son is with his mother still, they have removed him from her and placed him back with her again when they feel her standard of living is just about "good enough".

With the access the CS dept. have said they are not backing our application for residency, just proposing an access order for 48 hours a week. A massive difference in oppinion from the first one who told us to take her straight to court and we would win!! what a nightmare!!

All of our statements have been filed etc and ready to go but just dont really know what do to with her late submision of statements and the content is total lies! its just crazy, i think perhaps she's playing a dirty game to try and make me look like the bad guy!

...You could write a response to her late submissions/allegations and file it sharpish. Tackle each of the allegations in order and number each. If she has no proof to back her up then the judge will hopefully see through it and disregard! They are very used to some parents lying to try and sway the judgement.

Have you got a contact number for the first Social Worker? You've got nothing to lose by calling her up and sharing your concerns about the lack of insight in the current CS reporting....see what she says.

I think the CS are being very shortsighted on this occasion and bearing in mind they removed your son and urged you to apply for an RO. I am very glad you have filed copies of all the CS reports. I would play on the fact that new SW has not seen you and your son together.

As NJ says, tackle each allegation in order - but as NJ says, file it quickly!

If however the Court do go with leaving the child with his mother...that's if, another suggestion would be that the case be reviewed in, say, 3 months time, bearing in mind the Court costs etc that you have paid out so far! In light of her history, its very probable she will go back to that way. Just an idea.

Yes definitely request a review in 3 months if things don't go your way. Purely on the basis of the fluctuating reports from CS and the poor report in May. I would also ask for shared residence and additional contact midweek as well as the 48 hrs, again because of the problems and the child being on a protection plan, it's reasonable to want to be allowed to support your child more frequently in this kind of situation. That is if you don't get awarded residence....remind the court that previously CS were recommending you have residency with some urgency, push that point and push it some more!

Hi There,

I would like to echo the point of the CS recommending that you have residency particularly as there is a Protection Plan in place. This must be the basis for your argument. She cannot be trusted with this type of responsibility. What will it take for them to act? A tragedy?

Your child has an established routine with you. There is just to much uncertainty if the child were with his mother full time.

Remind the court of the life your child has with you and how much progress/development has been made with your child. Along with, is the mother in the correct place to give such care to your child as you have. You say this not to denigrate the mother but to say that mother herself needs help and caring.

Keep strong,

Brian