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Hello there,
I am a separated Dad living in the North of Scotland. My wife and daughter (who is 2) live in the South of England. I am facing a range of issues including contact, child maintenance payments and divorce. The first thing I need to ascertain is whether I will be under England and Wales's law or Scotland's law as these vary when it comes to these areas. We have been separated for over two years and I would like to proceed with a divorce, but my wife is very difficult and I find any discussions with her impossible. If we are under Scots law I can now divorce her with or without her agreement.
I have tried to have contact with my daughter but the situation with my wife is so unpleasant that it has not been consistent. Furthermore I live 635 miles away so getting there regularly is extremely difficult and expensive. My wife will only allow short contact periods of an hour or so which would be more acceptable if I were living close by, but as I am so far away it means that my daughter does not get to spend any length of time with me. So far in her life I have seen her for about 10 hours. I realise that her young age makes things more difficult but the distance and travel expenses involved mean that these short periods of contact are just not enough.
I hoped to work towards having her for whole days and then overnight as my mother lives about 2 hours from my daughter and so I could take her there overnight. It now seems that my wife will never allow this. I want to find out what I would need to do to obtain a contact order and would the court take into consideration the distance I must travel to see my daughter. I could realistically afford to visit once every two months for a couple of days. I often have to work at weekends and weekdays are much more flexible and the travel is cheaper then, as I can get cheap flights, so it would be more sustainable if I could go through the week. However, my wife will not allow me any contact during the week, which further reduces the opportunities to see my daughter.
I do not have a lot of spare income so I need to know if a contact order would be likely to solve these issues before I apply for it, as if it will not, then I may be best not to apply. I have made regular payments towards child maintenance, which to start with were well above the CSA recommendations. Now I pay Β£130 a month, just over 15% of my regular income of Β£800 a month and 15% of any extra I earn. We have not involved the CSA in these payments.
I hope someone can throw some light on my issues.
Thank you.
I would contact the Scottish Child Law Centre (www.sclc.org.uk) for advice (on the contact order issue) - my feeling is that you should be able to apply for the divorce in Scotland and that will be recognised in English law, I would think that the contact order would be under English law as it is normal that the court nearest the children would hear the case.
It is now compulsory for mediation to occur before you can proceed to court, but because of the distance, that is simply not going to be practical, so I would see what the SCLC advise - perhaps you ask for mediation and then refuse to attend, and then justify it in court that it was simply impossible to attend multiple mediation sessions because of the distance, but see whether the SCLC think this is possible or whether they have better ideas.
Certainly, when you apply for contact, I would say that you want more than an hour of contact so that you can travel down and stay the weekend to make the best of this time.
Hi mate, im also in Scotland. If phone the Scottish child law centre in Edinburgh, they are open from 930 to 4 mon-Friday, 01316676333. They are a charity with qualified solicitors. Ive used them, they are great. They will be able to tell you how it works cross border. I'm not sure how it would work. I guess it might be the law of England but they will confirm it.
In England, before going to court, mediation is compulsory but its not in Scotland and England has Cafcass who do reports etc (and sound a nightmare) whereas Scotland doesn't have that. The Scottish system is much quicker as well.
As they think about the child, a court would probably agree initially an hr is enough given the age of the child (unfair I know) despite the travelling distance but I would definitely mention being able to go to the house 2 hrs away which if you chip away should ultimately be viable in the longer term.
1 step at a time mate, its an arduous process and Id phone them 1st tomorrow and they will at least clarify the process as regards Scotland/England.
sorry actd lol, typing at the same time...
Thank you. I've sent them an email so will see what they come up with, it is a mine field and I can't see a way through!
sorry actd lol, typing at the same time...
Always better to have too many people answering than too few π
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