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Currently partway through child arrangements proceedings. I am asking to reverse residence.
Mother has obstructed contact since April this year, despite us having an interim order for contact. We attended court in July for a hearing, informed the judge about the contact being withheld, judge told the mother she must allow contact to resume immediately and made her aware of the consequences for not doing so (Judge mentioned I could submit an enforcement order).
Mother is still refusing contact, not turning up to handovers and giving various excuses which are not valid and change each week.
Do I put an enforcement order in now or am I better off just waiting for the next hearing which I'm hoping will be in the next few months?
I've been told the enforcement may take many weeks to be heard and I may be better off just saving the court fee and waiting for the upcoming hearing. Is there any benefit to me putting the enforcement in?
Thanks.
What is your next hearing for? When you apply to enforce the order, you will be required to provide a statement of the occasions they have breached the order and the judge will discuss this with you and potentially punish the ex in some way, a fine, unpaid work or worse.
If you have a hearing coming up then I would imagine you can just mention this then instead?
Next hearing will be fact finding, deciding where our child resides and how much contact time.
The last hearing we just had last month, I informed the judge the mother was preventing contact and breaching the order (made at the hearing previous) she was given a telling off and told she must adhere to it immediately, the judge was very stern about this.
Yet the mother is still refusing contact and has done so every week since that hearing.
I just don't feel like anything is done and maybe this will help? I don't know, I'm at a loss to be honest. It doesn't matter what the court or judges say, she will still do whatever she wants until there is some kind of consequence. I have to do something, I haven't seen my child for months, despite having orders for contact and the judge telling her.
I'd be inclined to put in an enforcement application now rather than wait. If you leave it, there is a chance the case may be adjourned if the court is unaware of a problem. Also, as there is a problem, the case may be heard sooner. There is a guide to sorting out child arrangements on the advice now.org.uk website which may have some useful information.
We have a similar query.
Have attempted mediation where mum agreed kids need to see dad more and 3 visits a week. This has not been stuck to at all. Gone weeks without seeing kids.
Have another mediation booked in 2 weeks. Is it worth going to get her to admit she has not stuck to the arrangement at all, has no intention to and explain her actions to a 3rd party. Or shall we save the £170 and go straight to court?
@stepmam I think if you see mediation going nowhere, then you could ask mediator that you would like permission to go to court to sort this out.
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