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In November of 2019 a family court put in place a residency order that I am able to have my girls on a weekly basis, which has been going fine. Prior to this case, the mother had accused me of domestic violence. This didn't go to court until October 2020 (although she alleged this took place August 2019. I was found not guilty, but at the request of her solicitor as part of a 'cooling off period' I was given a 3 year restraining order. The child court order has continued to be upheld due to me being found innocent. My query is that my family court order dated November 2019 allows contact between myself and the mother via email of text regarding the wellbeing of our daughters. Then the restraining order dated October 2020 says I'm not to have direct or indirect contact with their mum for the next 3 years. I have kept to this agreement as the days I have the girls is pick up and drop off on their nursery days. Their mum messages me on a regular basis, but I don't reply with fear I'll be breaking the terms of the restraining order. Please can I be advised if the family court order which is still in place supersedes the restraining order.
Kind regards
DaddyBee
It is very difficult to advise on this what you can and cant do.
I would recommend you read all the wording on the family court order and the restraining order exactly what you can and cant do .
Restraining could mean u cant see your ex in person or relay messages through someone else about anything.
It may be that your court order may allow you to contact by email/text about child related matters only.
Your ex is already contacting you when she shouldnt be , but never engage unless its strictly to do with children and important.
It has been known for people to be served a restraining order , ex contacts them about non child related matters or sometimes rekindle for them as soon as u fall out have you arrested and land you in more trouble .
Hi
I have knowledge in relation to this.
The Restraining Order supersedes the child contact order/child arrangements order.
The Restraining order does not prevent your ex contacting you but you are correct not to reply. If you do then technically you are in breach, however it is unlikely you would be prosecuted for breach in normal circumstances.
The risk is that if you reply and breach and then fall out with the ex at some point in the future then she can report the breaches to the police, lie about things and at that point it is very likely you would be prosecuted and it's very black and white, I. E did you breach if yes then you are found guilty of breaching and it doesn't matter about the reasons for breaching.
What should have happened (but usually doesn't as the courts rush it through) is that the Restraining Order should have been worded to allow you to contact your ex via a third party eg solicitor or nominated/approved third party such as mutual friends, parents etc (not the children) for the purposes of child contact. Does your Restraining Order say that?
If it does then you should liaise via 3rd party only.
If it doesn't then you can apply to the court to vary the Restraining Order to include wording as such. You can do this on your own but maybe take some legal advice to ensure the right wording etc although what I've put above is usually what's recommended.
You can also get a solicitor to do it for you and should cost no more than 1 day court time (a little costly but you have to determine how important it is to you)..
As an additional point for those reading this, whilst in your case the Restraining Order came after the family court order, it can happen the other way round too, in that the Restraining order is issued first. In these situations the family court order should follow the same language as the Restraining order. However it doesn't always, in such cases the same rules apply in that the Restraining Order trumps family court order and one would have to apply to vary as I've suggested. It is not a defence to use the family court order as a reason for breach.
Ive had a solicitor explain this to me in detail.
Hope this helps..
I’d like to echo the previous post as it’s bang on. Top has a restraining order on me, it was put into the order that communication was via a communication book.
No other indirect or direct contact is allowed and SS have put procedures in place that pick up and drop offs are at a relatives.
I’d double check the fine detail of the order and defo don’t reply to the texts.
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