[Solved] Update: Appealing a Child Arrangements Order

That’s excellent news, well done on your tenacity!

I was reading back through your posts, just to refresh and I read -

4. They confirmed that the child has had a stable relationship with me, and that their only concern was the long-term emotional and mental health impact on my daughter due to the mother repeatedly blocking her contact with me. They emphasized that the child has a legal right to a free and undisturbed relationship with her father which must be respected by the mother since she has blocked contact multiple times over the last 3 years whenever she wants to punish me for whatever reason she can come up with at anytime (nothing to do with the child's welfare).

...It occurred to me that part of your arguement could highlight this particular statement from CAFCASS and build on it, impressing upon them that should The previous 50/50 arrangement be reinstated, it would allow for your daughter to have a full relationship with you both, without fear of disruption. Your child needs to have confidence that both parents are equally involved in all aspects of her life and realistically this can only be achieved if a 50/50 shared care arrangement is made.

I’m sure Chapter will continue to provide you with direct and meaningful support, as will we here.

Thanks for the update.

isemE thank you for your words. I am away on holiday for 9 days in quite an isolated area with poor internet access. I will try however to assist.

You will need to start preparing your skeleton argument which you will be directed to prepare as will the respondent along with your appeal bundle. I think these must be filed within 14 days of filing your appellant notice so do check to ensure you act within the timeframes required.

My understanding is that no permission is required to appeal an order made by Lay Justices (Magistrates) so I am unsure as to why you had to get an’ok’ by a judge so to speak? In any event just make sure this does not interfere with the timeframes for filing the bundle and skeleton argument, this is important.

Your skeleton argument is basically your framework for your expanded argument in support of each of your grounds.

Read and become acquainted with the practice direction on these (under Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR) and FPR Practice Direction 30A off the top of my head) as the Court of Appeal has been coming down fairly hard on parties who do not comply and file excessively lengthy skeleton arguments or otherwise non-compliant (font size, spacing, etc)

Will you have representation and assistance in preparing the bundle? It is not as daunting as it sounds and if you will prepare it yourself then i have used an online facility which makes the process extremely easy and fast. I am not certain if posting a link here is permitted or appropriate, if one of the moderator can advise I would be happy to share it here.

So I think get cracking with thinking about and preparing your skeleton argument, google and read some articles on its purpose. There are a couple of great free article-guides one written by QC’s .

Any specific questions fire away but I may not be able to log on for a couple days, however Mojo and everybody else will assist you no doubt..

Chapter

On your appellant notice it asks you what you are asking the court to do.

Which did you choose and please expand. If you ticked the option which asks the court to ‘vary’ the order or parts of it then please, if you don’t mind doing so here, advise the details of your request. This will help determine the focus of your skeleton argument.

Your first and utmost task is to convince the judge hearing the appeal that the magistrates got the decision wrong in fact or law or erred procedurally. This would mean the court must allow the appeal.

Once that is achieved the court will usually direct a rehearing UNLESS it can, based on all the evidence that was in front of the magistrates (included in the appeal bundle) decide that it can make a new order, or vary the order, without any procedural unfairness to the other party.

It is an entirely dynamic process and the clearer you are in what you are requesting and the focus of your arguments the better the chance of success.

Chapter

https://www.familylaw.co.uk/system/uploads/attachments/0002/0019/FPR_PD30A.pdf

For anyone following this thread, here's a link to Practice Direction 30A.

I have to admit this is a learning curve for me, I haven't had much experience of the appeals process at all, so if my advice is a little sketchy, I apologise. Chapters knowledge had been invaluable.