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Hi all, my partner is already going through the court for a contact order. Final hearing is on 22 July. He has always had trouble getting his ex to have any sort of conversation regarding their 2 young boys and they end up arguing every now and then as she is never wrong about anything. So quite recently and after the directions hearing she told him she was getting a new phone and would text him the number which she did. Since then he sometimes has to wait 3 or 4 days for any reply. Last week while they were speaking on the phone she made a bit of a slip and it turns out she has 2 phones, 1 for him to call his kids and 1 for everyone else. The only problem with this is that the only time she has the phone on her and switched on is when the kids are with us and on a wednesday evening when he always calls so if he wanted to speak to his kids any other time he can't. Tonight after speaking his eldest he asked to speak to his ex and could hear her saying no in the back and then it went dead. He tried calling back but it went straight to voicemail. He wanted to talk to her about his eldest recent school report which was really good and to ask her about a bunch of absences. He's text her the question but knows he won't get a reply as she has switched the phone off and probably shoved it in a draw until next week. Is this denying him contact and is it worth mentioning it to the court now or wait til the hearing? He won't see them for another 2 weeks and won't be able to speak to them unless she's in the mood. She has realised that she is losing the control she once had so this is the only thing she can do to still control him.
Hi There,
I would mention it in court and try and get something written into the order that allows phone contact. It is probably going to be contested but the courts do like indirect contact as well as direct so you will probably win, come up with set days that the phone MUST be on and ready to receive calls/txt. His ex is probably going to come up with reasons as to why she has done this so if you have copies of txt/emails that have been exchanged then transcribe these (with both sent and received) so you are able to show that there has been no abusive messages sent.
Also in the final hearing make sure you have covered EVERYTHING and don't leave anything to chance, if the ex has been controlling then she is likely to continue to try to be so cover everything possible or you may end up back in court.
Cover
christmas/new year, birthdays (childrens and yours/mothers), bank holidays, school holidays, foreign travel and passports plus anything else you can think of.
The more that is written the less chance the ex has to control
GTTS
- Samaritans – call 116 123
- Shout – text the word ‘Shout’ to 85258
