[Solved] Breach of Court Order

I had a court order in place and my contact was stopped. I had to apply for an enforcement order (around £215). It took 4-5 weeks to get a first hearing. I did this without a solicitor. The form was quite simple to complete, I got a bit confused with the 'claiming financial compensation' sheet as I thought this was to ask for your fees back from the respondent for messing you around, but that does not usually happen. Its more for claiming holidays expenses lost because you had to cancel flights ect. The purpose of the order to request that the court enforces a punishment on the person for breaching the court order (and in doing so it should deter them from doing it again).

From my experience the first hearing was just to see if they can get you to sort things out without it going to a judges decision. First talks are with the Clerk. The Clerk pushes you a bit to get an agreement on the day between yourselves, but you don't have to agree with his opinions though. The clerk does seem a bit pushy, especially I think if you don't have a solicitor because you're more likely to agree to something. After your discussion you can decide if you still want to push for an enforcement order. He then presents the case to the judges. You have the opportunity to add anything you wish to, for them to listen. It then goes to a second hearing if there were no agreements to drop the enforcement order. I think the second hearing gets more detailed. You need to submit statements ect.

You can agree to amend the current order as part of the agreement to drop the enforcement order.

Even if you come to an agreement to resolve matters going forward, then you can still request they sanction an enforcement order to get the person punished for breaching the original order. I'm not sure on how often they actually punish people, when I looked into it, I think it was rare for a first few breaches, but if there are over 5-6 breaches then they will enforce a punishment. It might be that the person stopped contact on 4 different days over a 2 week period for example. That counts as 4 breaches of the court order. In my case there were only 2 breaches, but as it was in school holidays it actually counted as about a month of not seeing my son. Unfortunately it was still only 2 breaches of the order.

If you are going down this route, then personally I would wait for her to breach the order first, but complete your form ready. As soon as she breaches the order send the form off. Count how many separate occasions she breaches the order. Keep texting on the day to see if you're allowed contact, to give her the opportunity to say yes, or more importantly to say no. Then keep a record of all the occasions for when you go to court. Don't tell her about the form you sent off, she will get that in the post with a first hearing date. Hopefully the process and appearance in court will be enough to scare her away from messing you around again.

I think the best option is to write to her formally and remind her that there is a court order in place that defines contact and if she stops it she will be in breach of the order. Tell her that you wouldn't hesitate to apply to court for enforcement of the order, and also that contact is in place in the best interests of your child and has absolutely nothing to with with maintenance payments.

I would also ask her not to book activities for your child during the time that he spends with you and not to make demands on him that make him feel bad about wanting to spend time with you instead.

Family court isn't interested in the arrangements made between parents regarding child maintenance and in their eyes one has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

All the best

just some notes on my experience of this:

I had 3 separate breaches in 4 months 1) missed weeked 2) refused to bring to the location on court order for pickup and forced to change locations if i wanted to see my son (yes blackmail) 3) another weekend missed

I had proof of all breaches via text
I applied for enforcement via C79 form. hearing date approx 6 weeks later due to xmas

I was self representing and she had a solicitor via legal aid (the judge stamped a form which was for funding i believe) . I dont know how the government justify using the tax payers money to fund defence for someone who breaches a court order. Totally ethically wrong. If there wasnt a free ride to court and back they wouldnt breach it!

Cafcass recommended a SPIP and better communication. She didnt deny that the breaches had taken place
Judge gave a firm verbal warning and said it needs to be complied with. She was asked wether she agrees to "fully and wholly comply" to which she agreed bar the change to location that we had already reached (via blackmail ).

I asked if court order we could attend the SPIP ,
i personally wanted to cross it off the tick list so cafcass cant use it as an excuse to bail her out next time, and i wanted to show i was doing my best to make it work

and thats it. 20 mins in and out, Verval warning, Consent order issued stating upon the respondent mother agreeing to fully and wholly comply with the court order dated.......
and SPIP course by cafcass to be attended.

I think from my experience it will take more than one appearance to court for them to act on it properly.

But i would say log all breaches, you will need proof to convince court so date times, ideally text conversation confirming contact not taking place,,,reasons.

Just a small note to make......edit and remove any personal indetifying names from your post, you don't want the ex or the courts to know you are discussing things in public.
the courts do not like their secrets revealed to the world.....hence why i always try to refer my kid as "child" and my user name is non-traceable to my ex!

I've edited out names for the sake of anonymity as Dad-i-d pointed out.

Hope things have settled down for you and your son.