[Solved] Advice - not yet received guardian statement

I would say (not sure about this) that you complain to the judge - you are correct that if it is ordered by the court, then it should be complied with. At least the court is then aware that any issues you have with not having received the report in time are not your making.

Send an email to the judge to tell them that the Guardian hasn't filed their statement as ordered for the 16/03, that you had contacted them to ask for the statement and were told you would receive it by the end of April, that you still haven't received it and you feel that you don't have enough time to prepare a response and would like an adjournment.

Are you sure you want to adjourn? It will delay your case.

Hello

I don’t really want to delay the process as it has gone on long enough
Although it doesn’t seem fair that I may not get it in time, or on the day of the hearing as it has been orderd to be completed in March

I would say it depends on what the Guardian has been ordered to file & how long the hearing has been scheduled for.

If it's a position statement and the hearing is for one hour or similar, then I wouldn't worry too much about it as those hearings are generally DRA's (Dispute Resolution Appt) to see if there can be any agreement reached between the parties. If there can be, great. If there can't be, there would have to be a final hearing anyway.

If they've been ordered to file something other than a position statement, then the court would need to take a view on whether you being a lip (litigant in person) means an adjournment might be more appropriate to give you time to prepare.

Either way, I would write to the judge explaining that the filing date is long overdue and you are concerned about not having enough time to seek legal advice as you are self-repping etc etc......

With the hearing in just a couple of days, you're very time limited. Have you received the statement yet? If not, give the court a call and explain what the situation is, if you've already sent an email, ask them if they can make sure the judge has sight of it before the hearing... sometimes there can be a backlog, if the court are really busy and correspondence can get missed.

All the best

I have just had a call from the guardians solicitor, and the statement is ready

I am going to collect it tomorrow morning, a day before the hearing

Better late than never I guess, hopefully you will have time to prepare your response ready for the hearing. If it causes you any problems I would let the judge know that you only had a day to prepare as it was long overdue. Procedure wasn't followed, the Guardian should have requested an extension.

Best of luck and do let us know how you get on.

How was the report?

Hello Yoda

It’s a tricky one unfortunately

I have three children who are 11, 9 and 2

The middle one has autism and doesn’t speak - so he hasn’t got a voice in this matter and the youngest is too young

My eldest has stated continuously that he does not want any contact whatsoever with me, to all professionals who have spoke to him.
However he was messaging me before Christmas, and he seemed ok, and was sending pictures and exchanging in warm conversation also. At the time I was also speaking to his mum, and we met several times and discussed things during this time I had direct contact with my youngest. This was after the first fact finding hearing was set. However this didn’t happen as my ex was willing to work things out between ourselves- although after trying to do this it went pear shaped and another fact finding hearing was set.
This strained our relationship- and I haven’t had any contact with my ex or son since before the fact finding hearing.

The guardian has recommended that I don’t have contact of any sort for now, and that I attend a DV course. And also that there is some form of psychological assessment. The DV course is 27 weeks, and I think there may be a review half way.
The guardian states that if I have contact with the other two children that this may distress my eldest.

She also stated she didn’t want the matter to go on, and for me to be in a situation in where I have to make another application in a year or so, which is understanding.
I haven’t seen my children ( apart from the youngest last year) for over two years
I only started indirect contact with my eldest in September last year which lasted a couple of months. He also stated to his mum he did want to see me.

I feel at a loss really - my other two children haven’t got a voice in this, and perhaps never will. My youngest is also suspected of having autism so may not be able to communicate properly.

I do feel slightly betrayed by my ex as she changed her tune with me when the first fact finding hearing was set. Bizarrely my son started to text me three days after this was set after a year and a half. My ex was also amicable and stated she wanted to work things out and things had gone too far

However that didn’t happen, once this is in the system it’s not always that straight forward .
The fact finding hearing was set again anyway and all 10 allegations were found against me. Sickeningly I had run out of money after spending almost 20k and had to go without representation at the fact finding.