[Solved] Court date approaching advice needed

Perhaps she won't turn up again?

It is a difficult situation to say that your child has said they want to live with you and run the risk of the mother taking this out on the child.

The way I see it, there are probably two routes to take here.

1 - at the hearing before the judge, you ask that your child's wishes and feelings are taken by Cafcass - at age 14 they will hold a great deal of weight.

2 - Are you having any contact? If so, if your child refused to leave and go home to mum, you can go to the court in person and get an emergency hearing to sort out the short term situation.

You say that Cafcass have concerns about the mother? Did they manage to get her to have the telephone interview with them?

Thanks for your reply!

The lesser of the evils is she doesn’t turn up again.

If cafcass take into consideration the child’s wishes does it take a long time for him to be seen to state his wishes? My concern also is that she will take this out on him as there’s already been a lot of things said to him I wouldn’t dream of saying to a child.

We had contact yesterday for a few hours, the problem is we live on opposite sides of England, do you know which court we apply for an emergency hearing at? Would it be where he currently resides or at ours as currently I travel for court for three hours because of where he lives.

And cafcass were unable to contact her she didn’t answer the phone or reply to their voicemails

A wishes and feelings report or Section 7 reports don't come quickly unfortunately. It can take up to 12 weeks but if you explained to the court that your son is at risk, they may take other steps.

If you went down the emergency route - say your son was with you on a Sunday and refused to go home......first thing Monday morning you would attend your local court for an emergency Child Arrangement Order and Prohibited Steps Order using a C2 form which is to add an issue to current proceedings. There would then be another hearing over the next few days where the mother would get an opportunity to contest. This would be up to the court as to which of the courts would hear the case going forward.

If you are going down the emergency route, I would suggest logging a call with Social Services to seek their advice or asking if they would visit your son at your home to clarify what he wants to do. That last option is unlikely but is worth a try as it would help with court.

I agree with Yoda, also if you go down the emergency application route, you could reasonably ask for an ex parte hearing, which is one where the mother isn't informed until after the hearing, this is often used when there is risk of harm to the child if the mother knows beforehand, which from what you say does apply here.