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Hi, I went to court and got a court order which says I pick my boys up from school every Tuesday and Thursday and see them every other weekend. To enable me to do this I changed my hours so I work from 8am until 8pm every Monday and start at 8am on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. the court order also stated that the boys were to stay overnight during the school holidays with a view to them staying overnight on a permanent basis from the end of the summer holidays last year. My ex made such a fuss I didn’t insist on having the boys overnight at all during the week. I have had a meeting with my boss who has recommended that I no longer work 12 hours on a Monday when the current rota runs out at the end of August. If I start half an hour early I can still get 1 afternoon a week but my ex won’t agree to me picking the boys up from school once a week. I e-mailed the court a couple of weeks ago but haven’t had a reply. I was wondering where I stand with regards to the court order. Any help and advice would be much appreciated.
hi,
if the court order has laid out the rules for you getting overnight contact during the week and during holidays, and if your ex is breaking those rules, then you should apply for enforcement. form C79:
Hi there
Life changes, it’s just a pity your ex is being so inflexible.
Once you have a final order from court, the case is then closed, if you do get a reply from them, it’s likely that they’ll tell you that if you wish to vary the order, you will have to make a fresh application, before you can do that you would have to attempt mediation first.
Bill points out that your ex is in breach of the current order, this is true, but as you want to change the weekly conditions anyway, it might be worth trying to use her non compliance to argue for the change you want, without returning to court... with enforcement applications, you wouldn’t need to attend mediation either. It might be worth a try. I doubt she wants to go back to court, especially as she hasn’t been compliant.
If she won’t budge, you have the option of enforcement, or applying for a variation. In the circumstances, the lesser of two evils might be to try mediation, to see if you can resolve this issue, and get overnights sorted out too.
All the best
Thank you for your replies. I am not that fussed about my boys staying overnight during the week, if they did the maintenance would go down so I think that is why my ex has made such a fuss about it. I would just like to know where I stand if I don’t comply with the court order and only pick my boys up once a week. I see them from half 3 until 6 twice a week at the moment and it feels like I’m being used for free childcare. If and when my hours change I’d like to see my boys for longer on one night rather than for a couple of hours on two nights, giving me more quality time with them. I have had some legal advice since I posted this saying I am not under a legal obligation to actually have the contact stated in the court order and if I cannot have contact, I would not be in breach of the Order and therefore would not face sanctions.
That’s correct, only the resident parent can breach an order, by not making a child available for ordered contact.
However, it would quite understandably cause friction with the mother and therefore, it would be better to seek permanent change of the existing order via a variation... just my opinion.
It might be worth considering continuing with 2 nights for a while, but insist one of them is for longer. Once that's settled down, then you can cut down to one - it will make her position more difficult to try to cut the hours on the longer evening.
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