[Solved] Please Help

Hi there and welcome to the forum

It sounds like you are having a tough time at the moment and your ex making stupid comments like that surely can't help.

You need to think positively - if you were able to you would obviously support your son wouldn't you?

If the CSA came after you now they would take a percentage of your disposable income - so you need to think about what you can afford to give. If your ex won't accept it or scoffs at you then put it into an account and give it to your son at some point.

I think you may need to contact the Childrens legal centre and speak to them about visitation rights.

Hopefully in the meantime you'll find a job and be in a better place

Stay in touch

Hi there and welcome 🙂

If you are on ESA then I am sure that you will be entitled to Legal Aid so that you can apply to the court for access to you son... and this also applies to the costs of mediation. There is a change to Legal Aid entitlement coming into effect in April, so you still have time to get a solicitor and apply for it. In the meantime you could try Mediation which might help to get you both talking. It is a requirement of court that mediation has been tried so its worth giving it a try. Heres a link ~

www.nfm.org.uk

Maintenance and visitation rights are not linked and not being in a position to support your child financially will not affect your right to see him.

Good luck and dont give up hope 🙂

I will be booking a date to see a solicitor then in that case, is legal aid not allowed from April 13?? If that's the case how can anyone without an income obtain any rights to see their kids???

from experience, what sort of rights will i get to see my son, with the fact hes only 1 month old will i be able to take him with me for the day 1day a week or?

Hi there,

Yes it changes on April 2013 and your right about it being made tougher for parents, as it works both ways... mothers wont be eligible either, unless there has been some kind of abuse or domestic violence. The worrying thing is the number of mothers that will make false allegations of domestric violence or abuse to get access to Legal Aid.

As your child is still very young the contact will be in short bursts to begin with and increasing as the child gets older. If you havent had much contact with the baby this might be a supervised visit at a contact centre to give you both a chance to bond. Its very difficult to second guess what the courts would decide is appropriate contact, you might get a couple of hours once or twice a week. It might be a good idea to think about what you would like as a starting point...

I would like to see him as much as possible really.

As he gets older, say in 3 or 4 months time and im still not working, will i then need to pay for the solicitor to arrange new agreements as he gets older?

Or because im contacting the solicitor BEFORE april, will i be entitled to still be speaking to my solicitor as the months go on and as he gets older and as the agreements change?

When you apply for Legal Aid you will be awarded a certificate that lasts for a specific time, talk to your solicitor about this. If you go to court for access then the contact order can apply for years ahead, until the child is 16 in fact. Thats why I said have a good think about access....things like christmas and birthdays should be shared by taking turns every year, and when your child is at school, extra time during the holidays as you may wish to take him on holiday...all of this can be written into the contact order and is called defined contact.

Once you have been to court and the contact order is issued then that would be the end of it hopefully, if there are problems that arise whilst your legal aid certificate is still valid then you will be covered. Talk to your solicitor about this they may be able to specify a longer time frame for the certificate, its worth a try!

Concerning the last paragraph on my previous post...I stated that the Legal Aid certificate could run past the duration of the case and you would still be covered, on reflection I'm not completely sure about that so I shall do some research and get back to you....sorry for the confusion!

Its something that your solicitor should be able to advise you on, I'd be interested in their response.