[Solved] CAFCASS visit

Solicitors almost always err on the side of caution and keep sight of worse case scenarios... that way any positive is a bonus.

Just do your best, focus on your children and keep your emotions on a low light. Calm and reasonable is the best way to be.

Please do update us and good luck for Thursday.

All the best

Hi Mojo,

Quick update on yesterday in Court. We asked for the case to go to a final hearing which the judge agreed with. It is down for a full day in December so that is make or break.

The added cost of getting a barrister will be worth it if the correct outcome is realised.

Thanks for the update Dad-66, will you have the same judge?

Have you been asked to file any statements for the next hearing? If you have any questions, please just ask and we’ll do our best to support you.

All the best

Hi Mojo.

Judge will be the same one thankfully. He seems to have his finger on the pulse.

He's said he has enough statements and won't need any other evidence. I'll have to meet up with my solicitor soon and go through what is actually going to happen. We have a good barrister lined up, not cheap but I need to do all I can and would always wonder 'what if' if this doesn't go the way I hope and had got a different barrister just because they were cheaper.

It’s good to see some judicial continuity!

December’s not too far away, and at least you’re doing all you can do to get the right result. Keeping everything crossed for you.

Best of luck

Quick update:

Well that's been two months from [censored]! On 25th-27th October I suffered 3 heart attacks and was admitted to hospital. I spent a month in there as I was too unwell to go home and had a triple heart bypass on 13th November.

I am now home but needless to say the court date which was supposed to be Tuesday this week has now been postponed, not with any help from the other side who were questioning the length of time it takes to get over open heart surgery even though they had a letter from my surgeon saying a MINIMUM of 8-10 weeks.

I will update when I know more but at the moment I'm trying to get myself fit and well again.

Thank goodness you’re on the mend, try not to rise to the other solicitors questions about your recovery. I’m sure your solicitor can handle that. Just concentrate on getting yourself fit and well again.

All the best

wow - that's pretty eventful, so say the least. Make sure you are really looking after yourself as a priority before you get back to your proceedings.

Hope you're on the mend now. As has been said, make sure you look after yourself before getting back to the proceedings.

Thought I'd keep you updated. The final hearing didn't happen as her barrister was taken to hospital. We asked it to be moved up from the district judge to a circuit judge which it was. Next hearing the judge said she was moving so couldn't see the case through so it was moved to yet another judge.

Upshot is we now have another final hearing in July. The judge does seem to get it and has asked me to write a statement with my thoughts on how I feel we should move forward and what I would like him to do.

The problem is that I know I have probably lost my eldest as she has been irreversibly turned against me. Out of the other two my middle child is possibly the one who would see me again without so much counselling. My youngest has traits of her eldest sister but hopefully she is rescuable.

After spending the last few days of looking online for similar cases to mine and getting ideas on how we should move forward it is unfortunate that there are non that resemble my case, there is also a severe lack of in depth study in the UK regarding PA. In America they have camps that deal with getting alienated parents back together with their children (Report for CAFCASS CYMRU April 2018) and it is a sad inditement that the authorities here are so far behind.

Hi there

Thanks for coming back to update us and I hope that you’re feeling much better. My partner had just one heart attack and it took them 6 months to feel normal again.

Even though there are very many family law cases, mo are pretty unique, the judges have such a broad remit and the calibre of judges varies widely too.

I’ve read of a couple of cases recently, where alienation has been recognised, the court here seem to prefer to distance themselves from the American model of PAS and favour alienating behaviours. Here’s a recent case that I was just about to post a link to

http://www.transparencyproject.org.uk/alienating-behaviours-and-appealing-about-an-expert-report/

Have you looked at Karen Woodall’s blog site, she is a recognised expert in PA and has appeared in family law cases. You may be able to get some idea of how to approach re establishing contact, you might also quote her in your statement, also case law too.

All the best

from my experience with cafcass so far, they take cases of alienation so seriously. i got scolded simply because my child asked me can she stay the night, and i told her to ask her mum. LOL. something so simple like that went against me.

i also took an SPIP separated parenting course recently, and its main focus was on subjects like alienation and keeping kids out of parental conflict.