[Solved] Breach of Court Order - solicitor not helping!

Hi guys, here's an update on what has happened so far. I wrote to my ex's solicitor asking them to prepare the trial bundle and they have written back agreeing to do this. Great! So now I just have to prepare my position statement and file by next Wednesday. I understand my ex has just prepared a draft of hers.

However, in other developments. My ex has been in touch and advised that she does not want to go back to court for the contested hearing. She has been to see her solicitor and ended up storming out of the building apparently! She has offered me 8 hours of contact every Saturday and 2 hours during midweek, flexible, to fit around my work commitments! So basically, she is offering me the 10 hours per week which I should be having as per the interim contact order. I've said I won't cancel the contested hearing until I'm satisfied that she will keep this contact up.. the contested hearing is listed for the 3rd of April so I've got a bit of time. So far, I had him last Saturday for 8 hours and will hopefully be seeing him again this coming Saturday!

My latest question is this, if I cancel the contested hearing, when will we next be back in court? We previously had a review hearing for the 15th of April, will this have been cancelled when the contested hearing was listed? Should I write to the courts to find this out or is it something the other side could tell me? Thanks!

Hi Regnix,

To be clear on this, and i'm sure others on here will back me up on this... you have no guarantee she will continue the hours you are requesting.

If you cancel the Contested Hearing... that is the end of the matter... and if Contact is broken it will need a whole new Application to be submitted. "Remember, you've closed the Case"

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The best advice i can possibly give in this situation is to talk to your ex and explain that because of previous instances where Contact has broken down, if she is agreeing to your seeing your child for 10hrs, at the Contested Hearing she now needs to agree that this will be the case and that this is now agreed to be put into a legally binding order that can be enforced.

There is a more than likely chance she is doing it just to get you to drop a case you will more than likely win... its a common tactic.

Speaking from experience here you can be promised the world and get a pebble.

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I agree with yoji on this - get the order. However, a question for yoji - the answer to which may help - could regnix's ex write a letter to court offering the contact so that the court can make the order without the ex having to turn up? That may be a good compromise - and if the ex isn't willing to write the letter (or to sign it if Regnix types it up), then it shows that she's probably going to break the agreement anyway.

Hi actd,

Yes thats a fair point. She will need to have her solicitor writing a letter of agreement to Regnix's wishes to be put into an order. This letter then needs to be signed by both her and ideally her solicitor as well.

A copy needs to be sent to the court and one to Regnix. I would also say you will still need to attend the listed hearing to formally request this 10hrs so take the letter along with you.

If there are any doubts they need to be ironed out with time in advance to allow the letters reaching the court.

Thanks for the replies guys. My ex doesn't want me to drop the case, but just doesn't want the contested hearing. So she was hoping we could cancel the contested hearing and just have the review hearing as was originally listed.. I'm not sure if that is still listed though? I think I'll check with her solicitor. She knows I won't be stopping the court process, as I want (and need!) a final contact order.

I believe that she is sincere about sticking to the 10 hours tough, I had him again yesterday and she has let me attend his first time at the swimming baths this morning. So definitely big progress! She knows I am going to call in to her solicitors tomorrow to hand in my Position Statement, and she asked me if I would deliver hers as well - it's not in an envelope. Basically hers just says that we have agreed to 10 hours per week and that she hopes this agreement works, that is it. There is no talk of future contact or any increases to be discussed in the future. Is that normal?

For my position statement I was going to explain that my ex had been unable to stick to the interim contact order (on numerous occasions) but we have managed to reach an agreement and for the time being contact has been progressing. It is my hope that this will continue and progress to overnight contact now that my son is being weaned. I might add a paragraph about having some sort of prosecution clause in the order as she has broken the interim contact order 3 times now and that court hasn't done anything regarding that.

Oh, one other thing. At the last hearing, the magistrates did say that they hoped the contested hearing would not be required and that if we were able to work something out I should just let the court know. I took it to mean that we would still be going back for the review of the interim contact order, but that we could potentially cancel the contested hearing (which is listed for half a day!)...

This sounds like some real progress - I don't know the technicalities of going back to the original hearing, hopefully yoji will shed some more light on this, but it's looking fairly hopefull. It might be worth putting in something along the lines that you would hope to have contact increased in the near future and see if you can have the court add this in.