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Hi Everyone
The last 2 years have been a rollercoaster but I'm gonna give some update here so hopefully fathers who are similiar to me and new to this can get some insight. The final hearing for my case was about a year ago
The PSO went through and CAO continued to be heard in court. During covid these court sessions were very limited in time so it is your barristers job to get all the points across and come to a conclusion. My case took 3 court sessions.
The result was that I can now see my kid half the time with little interaction with his mother. She was also warned about the threats of abduction which were added to the CAO. Her barrister eventually decided to not address the threats of abduction and agree to the conditions of the CAO.
From this experience is that it is costly.. you need to save some money and put aside like 20k for legal fees. The solicitor seems costly and less important in my experience because they simply pass around messages between solicitors and act on your behalf. Choosing a good barrister feels much more important to me, my last barrister was amazing and made a clear and direct case.
Having a person with legal knowledge to talk to and exchange ideas is very important.
If anyone has any similiar issues please ask here and I'll try my best to help.
@deantam hi its great to hear from again and well done. its astonishing that you had to spend £20k to achieve that outcome. I have come across dads that have been self-representing, and taking good advice from mckenzie friends, and getting great outcomes too. It can be done without lawyers.
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