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Hi all,
A bit of background
I am a father of 2 children living with their mother (married, non-working, one additional child).
(I live with my partner her child from previous and ours together)
Court order (including the warning) stipulates aprox 6 overnight stays a month (every other weekend Sat to Sun and 1 per weekday) and other as to be arranged ourselves around holidays.
The weekday (on the fault of mother) didn’t routinely happen.
She verbally arranged for it to be the Friday prior to the every other weekend, this work for a while then she stopped it
I have consistently asked for the children; met with “we’re busy” or “they don’t want to”
I hadn’t been in a financial position to challenge back to court and hoped my persistence would pay off.
This however has been interpreted at “bullying and harassment” in her opinion
Since the introduction of CSM, ex decided to go that route (previous direct pay via CSA calcs & additional monies for uniform etc)
CMS calc sent to me. I called to discuss. This was because ex didn’t inform was a court order. CSM asked me to follow process for a mandatory reconciliation and send evidence in the form of the order.
This was done, calculation redone, ex still better off than previous CSA set up.
Ex now has appealed, describing that I don’t have the children as often and she isn’t financially off to yet take me to court to reduce the frequency of contact!
Obviously I am shocked, appalled of her blatant fabrication to, in my opinion, extract further money from me.
CSM obviously took the court order into account informing me, “.. even though she may not adhere to it, it’s still used for calculations..”
I need to respond to the appeal, but what do I put?! I’m stuck; if I put kids don’t routinely come (due to her) its that appeal then in her favour?
The only positive I can see is that she is “admitting” they don’t come, although pointing fingers my way I have text messages to counter.
Do I dispute? Do I keep it simple, do I write war and peace with all the facts?
I’m unsure where to turn. I don’t know how the appeal may go
Meanwhile I am drafting c79 for when I can save for a day in court
It's a dilemma, I think I would say that the mother is in breach of the order, that you have tried to negotiate with her to get the schedule of contact back on track, as court advises, but you feel she has done it to get her child maintenance increased and you will now be returning to court for an enforcement order.
It's either that, or saying that contact is continuing as per the order, which isnt quite true.
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