[Solved] Family Law Act.

Hi Kornelious

Unfortunately the Family Law system has only recently been reformed and I wouldn't expect there to be further movement In the near future.

Prior to Reforms becoming law there were proposals, at the beginning of the consultation process, that would have given fathers more of an equal say but as the Act moved along all of the good bits were removed and what we end up with are some fairly toothless reforms.

We do our best to advise members on how to achieve the best outcomes and we do have members here that have been successful in getting a Child Arrangements Order for shared residence. What this means is that both parents are equal, inasmuch as the child lives with both parents and has two homes. It doesn't mean that both parents get 50/50 shared care, but it does offer a more level playing field.

Hello, thank you for your reply.

You said that there has been some recent reforms, please can you tell me what they were and when this happened?

I do not understand why the children have to suffer the abuse of having their loving and devoted father removed from their lives by the mothers and the courts!

You intimated that some fathers are "Allowed" some time with their children on separation.
How is this in the "Best Interests of the child"? The 1989 change to the family law act ensured that mothers get "Ownership" of the children on separation.

Is there any politician out there got the [censored] to stand up and actually change the law to reflect an equal stance for both of the parents on separation?

I think that I already know the answer to that one!

Equal should mean EQUAL and I know from experience that if you have 49% residence compared to the mother's 51% you are doomed to a life of "I do Hope the mother is not going to make things difficult" scenario?

When I hear a solicitor spout "We only get involved when parents don't agree".............Who the [censored] in their right mind would agree to saying Bye Bye to their children?

The legal system should be used for criminals not loving and devoted parents. How dare a judge act as "God" over my children! They are monsters!

Please can you direct me to your legal boffins that are fighting to get this travesty of justice against the children and their fathers ?

Regards

Kornelious

Here's a link to some information about the reforms which came into effect in 2014

http://www.dad.info/forum/legal-eagle/38593-the-children-and-families-act-2014-caos

I don't believe that I inimated some fathers are "allowed" time with their children, I'm very conscious of the impact that certain words can have and try to be sensitive to this.

From the tone of your post I can only assume that your experiences of the family courts haven't been successful and you are understandably bitter about the outcome.

I do agree with you that family separation and the issues around children and the time they spend with both parents (barring where there are serious risks) should be taken out of the court setting and I would like to see family centres created for this purpose, where parents can be helped to resolve their issues. But I'm just an ordinary person with no hope of influencing the powers that be to even consider such a project!

The reality is that we have a system in place and we have no choice but to to work with it...it's far from perfect but with careful preparation and the right attitude, good outcomes can be achieved, we have many stories here that will attest to that, we also have stories of injustice too.....we do our very best.

Unfortunately we have no legal boffins here that I can direct you to, but if you need help or advice we will do our best to support you.

Hello again, thanks for the reply.

What I meant by intimated should have been alluded to.

It's all very well to say that some fathers have been successful in getting an Child Arrangements Order for shared residence but the reality is that no court will go against the mothers wishes and the mother will only give way when it suits. What I mean by that is that the mothers all know that residence is the ultimate power and will not relinquish this as this would mean that they would have to start to act as human!

I campaigned to have a non-court related body that deals with the issue of sharing the children between the separated parents equally.
Alas, the politicians were not interested because it ain't a vote winner.

I get really peeved at the "Sensitive words" that the system pervades, a while back the powers that be used the word "Contact" in regards to the father and his children, they huffed and puffed (Again) and changed the word to "Access" about ten years ago and lo and behold our Mr Cameron spouted that he was going to "Fix All This"...............no he only changed the "Sensitive" word to "Involvement"

Well all of these "Sensitive" words do nothing at all to reunite a father with his child! If you put one tiny word in front of any of the three words it is a game changer.

The tiny word is "EQUAL".

You talk about "good outcomes can be achieved", it would depend on what you class as being a "good outcome", For me the best outcome is for the children to have BOTH of their parents equally in their lives post separation. It is not good enough for the children to hinge on whether or not the mother is going to "Allow" daddy to feature.

You also talk about "there is a system in place and we have no choice but to work with it". Why?

It is nothing short of child abuse to withhold a loving and devoted father from a child is it not?

So is Dads Info involved on the legal side to do anything that will help the children retain their fathers post separation. i.e. a complete law change that throws out all the mumbo jumbo about which gender has rights and which hasn't?

Consider this scenario please: a same [censored] couple adopt a child and then split up, which one gets the power (Child)?

Regards

Kornelious

Please can you tell me how (On this Forum) all the people on here can see our dialogue, the reason I ask is that it would be good to have their take on all of this.

Regards

Kornelious

There have been 39 views on this thread so other members have seen your post, it's a public forum and everyone, even non members, can see your thread and are able to reply to it if they choose.

There really is no point in getting angry with me, I'm here giving my time freely, advising and supporting members to get the best outcomes that they can.

The choice is stark, if you are prevented from seeing your kids, you can either work with the system that exists to try and put some agreement in place, or you can rant and rave and get nowhere.

I'm sorry you've had a bad experience, truly I am, but it serves no good purpose to have a go at people that are doing their utmost to try and make a bad situation a little more tolerable. We have no magic wands here, but we work [censored] hard to help others and mostly we are successful in improving their situation.

Here here Mojo!

Kornelius, I don't really understand where this thread is going and have found it to be a little "probing" considering this is a forum for advice and support.

Maybe your comments would be better directed at the people who make the rules, rather than the people that seek to support us when we need to fight them?

Spotted tree, My "probing" is merely to find out if if Dadsinfo were doing anything constructive as far as getting the family law act changed to ensure that children continue to have their loving and devoted fathers in their lives EQUALLY on separation. Obviously this is not such a group, never mind I already have the answer to that.

Bye

Kornelious

There is no point getting angry with any of us on the forum. We are not a political organisation that lobbies about issues in the family courts, there are plenty of organisations out there whose sole purpose is to do just that. We work [censored] hard on here to give what assistance we can to parents who are struggling with their own issues.

There is nothing to stop you lobbying your own MP and any Government Ministers in Justice and Family. As has been said, we are not a political organisation and have no affiliation to any political party.

We do have members that arrive here angry and bitter and the best advice we can give is to put that aside, if the courts get even a whiff of anger, it will cause them to think again about granting contact.

There is nothing to stop you reapplying to the court at a later date, but if you really want to change your situation you must drop the attitude and present as calm and reasoned, with no axe to grind.

Good luck

Hi Kornelius,

I'm the Senior Researcher here at Family Matters Institute (FMI). We are the parent charity of the DAD.info site; I've been following your thread, and I wanted to build on Mojo's, Yoda's and Spottedtree's reponses with some answers to your questions about our stance, and any opportunities we have to challenge the Family Law.

Firstly, I am sorry to hear that you have had a negative experience, and your frustration is understandable. As Mojo identifies, many dads come to this site with varying experiences and outcomes from the courts. Some are positive, some are negative, but it is widely acknowledged that the system can be very biased against fathers. FMI, alongside other charities and organisations involved in the children and families sector, are fully aware of this and are actively campaigning for improved equality here. We are also petitioning on a whole host of other issues, such as increasing parity of advice and support for dads, and improving engagement with/perceptions of dads in other institutions such as schools.

There is research being undertaken to make the case that unfair removal of access to children is a form of abuse - you might be interested to read the attached research report, from the Welsh charity Both Parents Matter Cymru.

Although we are not a political organisation, we are involved in influencing policy. FMI are actively involved in All-Party Parliamentary Groups, as well as speaking to MPs and government ministers - however, unfortunately, this is not always a quick process! Equality for fathers remains a priority for our work, but, as Mojo identified, the family law was only changed recently and so is unlikely to be a priority for the government again any time soon; patience is required and in the immediate future we have to work with the system that we have.

I hope this helps to clarify FMI's position on this - if you have any further questions, please do ask.

Many thanks.