[Solved] Help me prepare.. She may stop me seeing my son

hi,

they can be slow with replying back from that cfc email. give them up to 10 days to reply. check your junk mail now and then incase it turns up there.

You could be waiting a few weeks for a hearing date realistically. I know it's hard, but try to keep yourself busy in the meantime to distract yourself from your worries and you will get the date eventually. Hopefully I am wrong.

In regards to the translation service, it's not something I'm familiar with personally.. I would phone Child Law Advice. You can find their number via Google. Ask them everything you've asked here. They are very knowledgeable with most stuff and have answered a lot of queries for me. If you can't get through to them, as their lines are generally jammed at the moment, you can book a call back for £20 or so, which might be worth doing. They give you 30 mins to ask whatever you need, so might be worth doing and line up any questions you have for them ready to go.

I really can't wait that long. The C100 is for a Prohibited Steps Order to stop the mother abducting our son, which is why I put in an Urgent Hearing

you should have a word with police if you think son is going to be abducted.

If you Google 'accredited court transcription' it brings up a load of different companies offering certified transcription. If that's what you mean?

Yes I have found many but they all say they are certified without saying what certification they have, furthermore I can't seem to find what makes a translation "court accredited". I'm getting quotes around £150. Don't want to pay then find out can't be used because the company certified themselves

maybe you could get a 2nd opinion from another solicitor. have a free consultation. you never know this transcription may not be required. solicitor may be trying to make a real meal out of your case. you may be able to hire a direct access barrister that could help with evidence gathering.

Finally got a hearing date. I went ahead with the translation just incase, cost £80. Police were informed but they can't do anything but logged the case.

Hearing is just for PSO, aparantly CAO hearings take time because Cafcass need to get involved.

I haven't seen my kid for some time now

Always better to be over-prepared rather than under-prepared.

Yep, Cafcass love a good CAO application. As for the PSO, I didn't think Cafcass would get involved with mine, but they have done and it's slowing things down as they usually do. Hopefully they don't need to get involved with yours as your case it's much more urgent than mine.

I have finished my position statement, if I send to the courts do they respond that they have forwarded to the judge? Or confirm in some way?

I'm trying to avoid the judge saying "what statement?" at the hearing?

I never received a confirmation. It would be helpful. I phoned the court a couple of days after I sent it to ask if it had been received, etc.

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.