Hi all,
I have used this forum lots over the past year or so (as a non-member too) on behalf of my partner. You have been so kind to give us some brilliant advice, and today my partner's ex was given 50 hours community service and my partner awarded £1000 in costs due to her breaching the contact order.
This contact order was only signed in May 2015 and was breached on 5 different occasions. As my partner kept every text message/whatsapp message she really had no leg to stand on. I know it's not easy to go through this and my partner has paid out £23,000 over the past 2 years. All I would say is that self-representation I feel is definitely viable and something that can be done if you have the evidence in front of you. Just to say thanks again and good luck to all you dads out there!! I definitely don't think this will be the last of our battle, but at least everything is recorded in court! If anyone wants to message me by the way, then feel free.
Thanks
Amanda
Hi Amanda,
This is encouraging news. If I may have some questions answered please just for my own curiosity?
Which Court did this get handed down in?
Did CAFCASS recommend this?
Was this enforced based on text messages explicitly stating that she would not bring them?
Many thanks and once again 🙂 Congratulations, I hope its a lesson that keeps her in check and that the Unpaid Work and costs are done.
Hi Amanda
This is fantastic news and thank you so much for letting us know....it really helps and encourages others to keep at it.
It's good to hear that enforcement works for some, not enough in my opinion but perhaps the tide is turning, even if very slowly.
If I may ask what the mothers financial status was....when a mother is on benefits the courts are loathe to make a financial penalty as this could impact on the child.
Hopefully this will be enough for the mother to tow the line, if not then she risks losing residence for the child altogether.
All the best
Hi both,
Yogi: this was in family court . Cafcass were great and actually didn't need to recommend anything but did recommend a suspended sentence. The enforcement was made worse by her attitude during court, she was abrupt and denied any wrong doing throughout . She also made it very clear that she viewed my partners role as lesser than hers!
Mojo: thank you, she worked twice a week but claims lots in tax credits etc. She told the court that she is heavily in debt and can barely afford to feed herself...! She also self represented and sacked her solicitor 2 days before- not a great move I don't think ! My partner did go for costs but knew she would plead poverty, bearing in mind that her dad funded the entire court battle for he is well off. We were flabbergasted that she got community service ! Does this mean she will have a criminal record? We are worried her family might seek retribution and don't like the fact she knows where we live etc.
Overall , her poor attitude in court and via text message is what got her in this mess, the breaches themselves weren't massively severe but enough for my partner to enforce. Hopefully we can move in from it , the child isn't even 3 yet and so I suspect we will have issues in the future!
Having read through your previous posts I can see why the court found against her, she really did dig a deep hole for herself to fall into and it looks like she will continue in this vein. Did you broach a transferral of residence with the court, if the breaches continue? If not I think it should be given serious thought, if it starts again an application for enforcement with transferral of residence should be the next step.
Hi again , we didn't but we are going to look at it. She simply doesn't put his needs first and we really worry about him. If she 'behaves ' then we will hopefully not need to but I'm sure in the next few years we will be back in court. Thanks as ever for your fantastic advice
