[Solved] Potential order breach tomorrow

From what you described for child 1, alternating Saturdays from 13/10/18 would mean 19/01/19 i.e tomorrow is the next scheduled court ordered contact. It is clear in that order that points (a) and (b) is a fixed schedule that mum has already agreed too.

If she agrees more contact time for you under point (c), then that is in addition to and not instead of points (a) and (b).

I think in the first instance, perhaps speaking to her to clarify the above points may help her see how the order works. She may have not worked out in her mind how the dates fall, or that she agreed to an extra date that fell under point (c).

It may be a misunderstanding on her part that has caused her to say "no" to your step dad. I think this could be worked out by just going over the dates with her for points (a) and (b) and helping her see where last Saturday falls under point (c).

Your step father does have a legal basis to collect child 1 tomorrow as the order states. So.....if she does refuse, then she would be breaching the order. But it seems to me she would be breaching due to lack of comprehension of how the order works in a practical sense rather then being malicious.

Try not to escalate this, especially since things have been going well. Instead be diplomatic and try to work through the dates and explain to her what I have outlined above. This is your chance to show the court and Cafcass that you can navigate around problems and put your children first. That will be a positive for you in the ongoing proceedings. You wouldn't want to go back to the judge and say things you agreed by consent fell apart over a misunderstanding.

Good luck.

Thank you for your detailed reply.

My gut feeling is that someone has told her, that it's bad for her cause that she let me have extra time and is back peddling; maybe trying to get me to breach order by constantly having wrong weekends. The section 7 hearing due next month.

It's all really strange, last week a mutual friend that's firmly in my camp showed me that's she's been spamming her FB with posts about how difficult it is for mothers to look after kids. So I decided to try my hand and get the extra weekend. She very keenly agreed. Now sudden stone wall on ordered visit.

I've advised my step dad to be all sweet and puppy dog tails tomorrow. I'll have him wired in case she cries harassment or whatever. This is a girl that up to last month was accusing me of rape and being an useless father.

If she's not in tomorrow, do I call up the court Monday morning? I'm not sure of next steps, only recently became self repping.

You can't call the court regarding this = they won't do anything about it. It is something you would have to raise at the next hearing.

When this 'extra' weekend was discussed, was it very clear for all parties that this was 'extra' time and not a variation to the schedule?

You're in a very grey area here as she could claim a variation to the schedule and thereby avoiding a breach.

Try to get things back on track and pick your battles wisely.

Any further difficulties, you can advise the court at the next hearing.

It should have been very obvious, my step dad asked her (as I can't due to non-mol) if we could have that weekend as an extra visit and she agreed. I'm assuming parties mean Me and Mother only?
Thankfully it all blew over, she handed over the children yesterday and today without issue.

Is it useful to say in my section 7 hearing that Mother agreed to extra visits?

I think it would be useful to mention that, it shows that she is willing to progress contact. You could mention that there was some confusion about the extra time, and in the circumstances a well defined final order would help to avoid that.

Great news that the scheduled contact went ahead... she must have thought better of it.

All the best