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I have been given the option of being issued the C100 form to go to court to get a Child Arrangements Order. Has anybody got any experience or advice on representing yourself?
Currently I have access to my daughter 2 days a week with 1 nights stop over. She is starting school in September and her mum is reducing that time to 3 hours. She has asked for me to pick her up at 5:30 from the childminder who picks her up from school and then I'm to drop her into school the next day for 8:45.
I want to go to court to request access to my daughter to include 2 pickups from school, 2 drop offs and 2 nights stokp over.
I'm a shift worked and work 4 on 4 off so the normal every other weekend access isn't an option as I only have 2 weekends off in an 8 week period. I want to request to have my daughter at mine on my first two rest days every week
Is this something I could request at court on my own? To me it seems like a fair request takinginto account the current time I spend with my daughter .
Hi There,
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If you are going to apply to court, is you haven't already you would need to firstly try mediation, the court won't accept an application unless you have, if your ex won't attend or you can't resolve the issues, the mediator will sign the C100 form so you can apply to court.
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I think what you are asking is reasonable, but it will all be down to the judge to decide, you would hope that they would look at your working pattern and try and work around that, but there are no gaurentees.
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GTTS
I would echo the advice of GTTS and it would be very doable to represent yourself in court once you have tried mediation, I and many other dads have self represented with great results just do your research (this site is ace for that) and approach the whole thing cool calm and collected with the best interests of your child at the forefront and you'll be fine.
Slim 🙂
We attended mediation about 2 years ago and various things got sorted but the arrangements didn't last. I went to a mediation session a few days ago and the mediator has said because we tried before but it didn't last he would agree to sign the C100.
It's quite straight forward. As the mediator has signed the C100 for you, get that sent off and filled in and Cafcass will be in touch to speak with you on the phone. They will write a letter of recommendation to the court and at the first hearing, they will all try to get you to agree.
It's wise to write a short (no longer than 2 pages) position statement to take with you on the day. GIve a bit of background, say why you're making the application and what it is you would like the court to do. Everything needs to be from the child's point of view rather than yours. Obviously your work pattern means thinking outside the box a little and the court should take that into consideration.
Self repping isn't as daunting as it would seem and the court are used to dealing with people without solicitors. Plenty of info to be found on this site. Best of luck
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