[Solved] COURT TRIAL

Do courts always follow cafcass recommendations on interim contact?

Just my experience but yes the judge always agreed with Cafcass. My ex asked for interim contact at every hearing and was never granted it. Not even supervised contact in a contact centre.

Not always, but mostly they do.

Unfortunately it seems to be a lottery as to if you get a judge who sees errors with cafcass's opinion and sees the truth through the lies in evidence.

I had 4 judges and 1 cafcass officer who all saw the truth and all said the same thing....no reason for the ex stopping contact.
Then I had one cafcass officer totally ignore the previous 5yrs and four previous reports and go on the alleged wishes and feelings of a child who at 7 had not seen their father for 6mths and had been told their father was trying to take them away from their mum and have her put in prison.
That officer took child's word for it...and the exs lies as gospel and suggested no direct contact!
That report was full of contradictory statements, and under questioning in court accepted the 5yrs of previous contact and reports but said....that was then and today is now and that's what she has to go on.
The judge did exactly the same and went with the advice by cafcass officer.

Fast forward 2yrs and multiple hearings with a new judge who now sees the cr*p from the ex over the last 8yrs and I now have hope that the ex will be seen and dealt with but I fear too much time has now passed since I saw child and fear contact can never be re-established due to the alienation suffered by the ex.

It's a lottery and it shouldn't be....these people are playing got with our kids and our lives !

Whats getting me at the minute is every one is doing the opposite of what their saying.

Saying - Ex in her child application has stated she wants me to have supervened contact with my son.

Doing - stopping all contact

Saying - Cafcass said to me on the phone they would follow SS recommendation on supervised home contact

Doing - Recommended zero contact

Also whats frustrating is everyone seems to have had there say apart from me, and everyone is going around treating me like a serious risk to my own son and my ex all based on nothing.

The saying your innocent until prove guilty is totally wrong.

With the family court, SS, and Cafcass your guilty because your ex said so.

Yep, you're spot on there...cafcass and court automatically believe you're whatever your ex can dream up...you then have to prove you're not.
And even when you prove it you're in a lottery as to what the ex and cafcass come out with next and what is then offered.

The bit that gets me is that in most cases the exs were happy being with you and having a child with you and living with you...but as soon as you leave and you're then not under their control anymore they then get coaching on how to regain control over you.

Narcissists!

Totally true in my exs case its all a power play, all about control.

She already has 2 daughters who grew up with out a dad because of her actions, i am going do my best to make sure its not a 3 in a row.

Update

So i went to court with the cafcass recommendation of zero contact in one hand and the SS recommendation of family supervised contact in the other thinking [censored] is going to happen today.

Anyway the judge was a very thoughtful guy and basically ignored cafacss and decided what he thought was the best way to proceed. He asked me and my Ex to come up with an interim contact plan between us.

Another court date was set for mid oct where the police will attend and give an update as to there investigation, the one where there's zero evidence ! then the judge will consider how to proceed.

I made a mistake of agreeing to the non-mol and claim for resistance by my ex in the hope it would speed the process up and keep costs down.

Since then i have only see my son for 1 hour in 3 weeks as the ex basically turned down all 6 of my proposal for contact and has not been able to come up with her own. Top mum eh !

Cafacss - are a total joke, they turned up at court and new nothing and did nothing. The judge specifically stated there was no need for a cafacss report at this stage as it would be pointless... so guess who wrote to me wanting to schedule an interview for a report... useless twats. Do not trust these guys at all they do not give a toss about you or your situation, as far as there concerned your male and white, your guilty of what ever you ex said to them about you.

So back to court mid Oct, hoping the judge will see my ex has obstructed all contact options for no good reason and make some kind of interim order even if its just a weekly contact centre its better than nothing .

What i find so frustrating is i can go near any kid in the world apart from my own son. An your ex gets give all the options and all the power to do as she pleases with no comeback based on nothing but allegations and lies. Totally insane system.

Have just read through your thread. Was contact being supervised at a centre not discussed at the hearing? Quite often it can work really well as the father usually comes back with glowing reports to show to the court and it allows things to progress.

Try to have a bit of faith that the court will not look favourably on her blocking the contact she agreed to arrange. I know it might not seem like it now, but it is very early days and for the most part, the court system does work fairly. The posts you will read on here that suggest otherwise, tend to be at the extreme end of the spectrum.

It sounds like the judge was pretty balanced and it's good you've got another hearing so soon (I appreciate it won't feel like it is soon). If the judge had ordered a Cafcass report at this stage, it would have delayed matters by months.

Hope you get some contact sorted in between these hearings.