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Hi, really need help on this. After a 2 year battle through the courts, an order was made in June this year giving me everything i requested (contact every other weekend, building up to full weekend access: Friday - Sunday). My ex has only complied with this on several occasions, stopping all contact when it got to overnight access. I have been in contact with her solicitor throughout and have just received a letter from them saying she has applied for a variation on the court order and claiming ive failed to turn up for contact. I have proof of all contact requests ive made (and subsequently her refusals to allow this). Also, as ive already paid £17,500 in solicitors/barristers fees, i now have bo option but to represent myself. Can anyone shed any light on where i stand with this, especially in the eyes of the courts when i attend. Thanks
I think you stand in a good position if you can produce proof that she is lying about failed contact. You could also claim that you had decided not to pursue enforcement for her breach of the order even though you would have been within your rights to do so, because you wanted to try and work it out for the sake of the child
Representing yourself is doable as many here can attest to....we will help and support you all we can but I the meantime it might help if you were to attend a Families Need Fathers meeting in your area. You will get face to face support from others in a similar situation to yourself, and legal advice and support. Here's a link to their webpage which gives details of meetings in your area.
www.fnf.org.uk/help-and-support/local-branch-meetings
Thanks so much for that. A) it puts my mind a lot more at ease, and B) the link is really good and extremely helpful. I plan to meet up with a local group in the next few weeks so will hopefully get more advice on the legalities as well as additional support. Wish i'd found both this site, and that link at the beginning of all this, i think it would of made things a lot clearer and easier.
Once again, many thanks.
Also, if you haven't looked at them yet, there are sticky topics at the top of the legal eagle section on representing yourself, definitely worth a look.
In my opinion, when the court sees that she's applied for a variation because you haven't attended, and you show the proof that you have tried and she has denied contact, they will probably be quite harsh on her, if nothing else, for wasting court time and resources.
One more point - her solicitors shouldn't be representing her if they know your ex is lying (which I assume they do since you've been in contact constantly), it might be worth looking into that and pointing it out to her solicitor, that might prompt some stern advice to her from her solicitor.
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