[Solved] Parental responsibility and contact order

Hi Neal and welcome 🙂

You can apply for contact and PR at the same time. You will need a form C1 to do this.

Have you attempted Mediation? If you submit your application for contact without first having explored other avenues then you might find the judge will order you to go to Mediation before proceeding. Court is always the last step and when the Legal Aid reforms come in on 1st April, Mediation will be given even more priority. After April 1st it will no longer be possible to get Legal Aid for family law cases, at the moment most mothers on benefits are entitled to it, most working Dads arn't.... So hopefully there will be a more level playing field! Thats the optimists viewpoint anyway!

There is a charge for Mediation but if you are unemployed or on a low income then you can get assistance with it. Heres a link -

www.nfm.org.uk

Good luck with it all 🙂

Thanks, no we split up 6mnths after he was born we have no communication at all except threats of stopping access which has now happened. She has had many partners since then and is living with her parner . She has told my son that I am no longer his father and has ceased all contact - I can not even talk to her no answer. Also she mover 50miles just b4 Xmas so can not pop round...

...Unless ther is a history of Domestic Violence, Harrassment or similar injunction then Mediation is still an option. If she refuses to attend the Mediator will issue you with a form FM1 which you will need to submit to the court with the C100 form.

Try and select a Mediation Service close to where she lives so that she cannot use the distance she has to travel as an excuse not to attend.

Its advisable not to just pop round anyway as she could call the police and make all sorts of allegations! Lots of Dads on here have fallen into that trap. Try to communicate by txt or email as then you have a record of the conversation. Always keep any communication civil.

Thanks, I do not mind trying the mediator but the problem is there is zero trust , she WILL NOT maintain any non legal agreement and will just do what suits her. eg. she has up staicks and moved to Scotland for six months in the past staying with her parents, moved house 9times in 5years, frequentley refusing contact for no reason, she has even changed my sons name and informed by text after the event...
I want to have a judge put this in writing .
Rgds

...I understand...hopefully your explanation for not using Mediation first will satisfy the court and they will allow your application to go ahead.

Good luck 🙂

Thanks again, I have form c100 - is fthere a seperate form c1 as I can not find it?

www.justice.gov.uk › Courts › Procedure rules › Family

you can find the c1 form on here

Hi nealjones,
I won't put lots of text here, as I cannot add to the great advice that has already been given.
I would, however like to empahsise the importance of the point made by Nannyjane regarding the method of communication.

"Try to communicate by txt or email as then you have a record of the conversation. Always keep any communication civil."

When my ex left me and our 2 children I made sure all communication was via text messages. I only ever replied to texts that were regarding the children and ignored all threats, taunts and wind-ups (not saying that was always easy mind!). I cannot tell you how thankful I was that I did this when she eventually applied for full custody. I used a free app on my phone to back-up the texts to my email account. Amongst other minor accusations the 50 + pages of text messages were able to disprove the following accusations made by her during the court case:
Forced abortion
Attempting to run her off the road
Stopping her seeing the children
Threats of violence and abuse etc

My solicitor informed me that text messages, e-mails and screen captures of social networking site posts are all perfectly legal and valid evidence.

Sorry, that was more text than I had planned 🙂

I really feel for you and wish you the best of luck