[Solved] Review hearing what can I expect

Try not to worry the courts are all about contact progression and moving things forward they will be wanting to see contact move out of the contact centre to unsupervised for sure.

My ex tried this at the final hearing I had already done 6 sessions at the contact centre and she put in her position statement that she wanted contact to carry on at the contact centre for at least another 6 months, the judge completely ignored her and set a timetable of contact out of the contact centre to having it at my ex's sisters house then at mine on my own over a period of 3 months.

As you have the fact finding hearing they may not grant unsupervised contact straight away, when is the review hearing? A way round it until the FFH has been done could be to get a family member supervise contact until then? Is there anyone who would be prepared to do it?

You could explain to the judge that contact has been going very well with no issues and you are finding it difficult to afford it as £200 a week is just extortionate, can you get reports from the contact centre in your favour?

At my review hearing I explained that contact was going well then they ordered the final hearing 4 weeks later I asked for unsupervised contact they didn't grant it but all I had to do was get through to the final hearing so I didn't mind too much.

Where roughly do you live?

Slim 🙂

I think Slim is spot on with his advice, try and get something in writing to say how well the contact has been going. Do you have any photos of you with your child playing and looking happy during contact? These might help too. As Slim says, because of the FFH IN march they court may want to wait for the outcome of that before progressing, but there's no harm in making proposals anyway.

I think the contact charges are extortionate and I would certainly make the court aware of the huge cost and an alternative to the contact centre if possible.

Good luck. 🙂

Thanks Slim and Mojo, I really appreciate your help! My review hearing is on Wednesday and yes I have 11 good reports from the contact centre. Especially the last one which was an incredible session as my daughter fully opened up to me and was very playful and chatty. The supervisor was really impressed with how I handled her and met all her needs. I

have plenty amazing photos and videos which I will edit and print now.

Also I have many family members who can supervise contact.

Yes it is very extortionate indeed but it's the only one near where my child lives, the next one is 20 miles away. I live in London and they live in Kent 50miles away.

Yes I am aware the FFH may be a problem for the judge but I have 11 great reports which all state they are no concerns. Also my daughter is familiar with me now. This whole thing is a complete nightmare and has cost me nearly everything I have, I am in the process of getting a place in Kent just so i can try and secure 50/50 shared care at the final hearing.

Also the judge would have a copy of my police disclosure which has nothing since 2011 and even then it has nothing to do with violence/assault etc just fraud offences.

That's great, put some proposals on paper and letters from family members to confirm that they would be willing to assist with supervising contact.

Best of luck for wednesday 🙂

Craig,

I hope your review hearing goes well. With that said, my impression from all that have described is that you should not set the bar too high for what you expect to get out of the hearing. I don't say that in a negative way though. I say it more in the context of this review hearing is going to be one where you lay the foundations for blowing your ex aside come the fact find hearing.

The reality here is your ex is resistant to unsupervised contact and as such you find yourself in a contact centre like the majority of dads at this stage in proceedings. I was once where you are now. The ex has made allegations against you that the judges in your case have deemed necessary to investigate by way of a fact find hearing. For those two reasons combined, I feel it would very unusual for the court to award unsupervised contact - despite what it costs you for the contact centre. There priority is not your finances, it is the welfare of the child. It is unfair, definitely, but it is reality. I would be expecting supervised contact to continue until after the fact find, unless your ex agrees to unsupervised contact by consent.

With all that said, you will no doubt have time before the hearing on the day to discuss contact arrangements with your ex or her solicitor. But again, it's unlikely given the allegations that they are going to do a huge turn around and agree to unsupervised contact. They will most likely push for supervised contact to continue. Nevertheless, you may be able to negotiate alternative supervised arrangements with her that impact much less on your finances.

On to the hearing, you really need to impress upon your judge your position. You cannot let the ex and her solicitor paint you as a "monster" and not have something solid and to the point to present to the judge to show our side of the story, which will be logical and child child focused, with progression toward future contact that is sensitive to the needs of your child. So it goes without saying, a solid position statement is essential for you to take to court.

I would be focusing on the following points in your statement:

1) Your commitment to contact i.e you never miss a session, you pay perhaps more than you can afford in the short term to make it happen because you value the bond with your child.

2) You refute all the allegations made against you and consider them to be without truth. In the absence of any clear evidence to suggest otherwise, contact should progress to unsupervised.

3) Describe the positive attachment your child has to you. Describe how you provide for her basic needs i.e changing, feeding e.t.c. Describe how you are alert to her safety at the contact centre. Describe the fun your daughter has with you and the bond you are building. Corroborate all this with the glowing reports you have from contact centre staff/cafcass (if they have observed you with the child)

Have you had an S7? Have cafcass observed you alone with your daughter and reported back to court on this? If so, what did they say?

4) Outline a plan for how you would envisage contact progressing. But remember to keep it child focused and sensitive to the age and development of your daughter.

5) Highlight how your daughter needs consistent contact with her father and that the exorbitant cost of the contact centre is a limiting factor in how long it can continue. Contact arrangements need to be self sustaining and not limited or ruled out by financial concerns. So....examine alternative supervised arrangements until the fact find is out of the way and you have exposed your ex's lies.

For me it took 4 hearings and 1 whole year to get to fully unsupervised contact, in the face of multiple allegations form my ex and various family members. So the point is, these thing do take time. But you will get there in the end. Just keep things child focused. Show the judges you are part of the solution. Give them options to consider. Help them make the decision in your favour. You can do it.

Remember, by going to court with a logical well thought out plan that disregards the lies and the games of the ex, the court will see the commited dad you are, and it will not take long for them to figure out what is best for your daughter.

Stay strong. Don't forget, if you have any questions, just post them up here. I will chip in where I can.

Simon.

Thats excellent advice from Simon as always he said exactly the same to me before my review hearing I did get my hopes up thinking contact will go to unsupervised I was gutted when It didn't but I only had to wait for 4 weeks to the final hearing so prepare for the worst case situation, You can't do anymore than you are and the courts will see this it's defo a case of suffering this **** for a little longer but you will get what your little one deserves 🙂

Thank you very much Simon!

I agree with everything you said, i will outline a series of alternative supervised contact plans, I will also produce a position statement completely child focused.

Fact finding is in first week of March so it's not too far away I guess.

Worst case I can manage the contact centre till then, but it will be a real struggle. £200 a week 🙁 🙁

CAFCASS were involved initially and produced reports completely against me infact they recommended indirect contact only. When I questioned them about the fact there is no evidence to what my ex is saying. They said the fact she said it is enough evidence!! They even go on to confirm I was her primary carer and that her nursery where i use to take her had no concerns. Its very bizarre! They then go on to recommend no direct contact!!

No S7 has been completed, would it be a good idea to suggest it to the court to push things along?

No one apart from the contact supervisors have seen me with my daughter since these court proceedings started

It is so hard Simon, I really cant figure out how you did it! I completely commend you and everybody else who have been through this nasty episode of life for coming out of this in one piece and helping others like myself!

Thank you all

I vow to everybody here that should i come out of this alive, I will help out as much as i can for as long as I can!!

That's the thing you will and have to come out of it alive there is no other option it's one of the hardest most brutal things you can do in your life fighting for your child through this biased system, the injustice of it all fires me up to try and help other dads and to put a little back into this site as it was a god send for me when I was at the lowest of the low.

Craig,

It is a difficult time for anyone. I don't deserve any special recognition for what I did. As far as I'm concerned, I stood up my son's rights to have me in my life. At times the whole situation was incredibly tough, and it pushes you to breaking point. But really, getting good advice early was so important, because it allowed me to understand what I was up against and how to respond. Having a sounding board for your ideas and your frustrations is also very important. I was able to find all of that here from the good people on the forum.

As you get deeper into the process you will find out more and learn more about family law and how things work. So that will help you a lot. I would recommend, if you haven't already, reading material about cases similar to your own and how judges typically treated them. It lets you understand how a judges mind work and how they look at the case in front of them. I found that immensely helpful. At my final hearing I had a skeleton argument with my points reinforced by case law. It went down very well, to the point the ex's barrister talked her out of having the finding of fact.

I'm not sure what to make of the fact that you had what sounds like an initial S2 safeguarding report completed by cafcass, but no S7 report.

After my c100 went in, I had an s2 done. That was november 2013. Then after the 1st directions hearing the same month, an S7 was completed by feb 2014 because the judge wanted more detail on the situation from cafcass. I think because allegations were made, the court want cafcass to investigate and draw conclusions from the info they have.

I think this highlights the lack of standard procedure within courts. Some cases are handled differently to others. Ultimately the judge would request the S7 if he felt that alone would allow him to make decision. Perhaps because of what has been alleged, he wants to go straight for the fact find and hear the evidence. In other words, it is the evidence that is important, and now what cafcass say. That's all I can think of about that.

Perhaps it is worth asking why an S7 was not requested. Normally the courts would want cafcass to observe both parents with the child when safeguarding issues have been raised. At least you have got the reports from the contact centre and the nursery. Make sure to highlight all that is positive to the court on wednesday.

If it were me, I would be looking to tear into that cafcass report you have. It is ludicrous for them to claim that because an allegation has been made it is proof of whatever was alleged actually happened. If any recommendation has been based on that logic, then you need to highlight to the court you do not agree with it.

If the court are going to rely on that report then at the fact find hearing you need to make sure the cafcass officer is present so you can cross examine her and expose her bias and lack of professionalism. You can easily nullify the garbage they have produced. It's actually laughable.

Simon.

Craig,

I am in a similar situation, I have a 20 months old son, I am requesting the court for shared residency.

I have a review hearing in a week. Could you please share how your hearing went ?

My case is slightly better, even though my ex wanted contact to be for one hour for six months, court ignored it and ordered six contact at a contact centre and after that it was supposed to be outside the contact centre, but she insisted on contact continuing at a contact center. Court also ordered any cost incurred for the contact will be shared.

Craig updated us and you can read it here

http://www.dad.info/forum/welcome-to-the-forum/42779-what-a-turn-around

It sounds like you have a good judge who has a firm handle on the case and as the court had ordered that contact should move to unsupervised outside the contact centre and she hasn't adhered to that then I would think it will be ordered to happen with immediate effect at your review. Although we can never second guess these things, once a judge orders something they rarely go back on it.

Best of luck