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After my partners final hearing for a Child arrangement order mid December 2016 we waited to receive the court order itself. The order didn't arrive before Xmas so that meant another year with things being unclear and my partner not getting as much time as he would have liked again... but early in Jan the court order arrived.
After reading through the court order it was clear that they had just overtyped a template document that had previously been filled in for another family; there were names of people mentioned that were not part of the case and some quite significant errors with the information included. The report was also pretty basic and the info regarding such things as Christmas was unclear how it should work moving forward. The wording said what would happen this Christmas 2016 ( the one that had just passed before receiving the order) so not really relevant anyway as the time had gone. It says that as this year falls on his ex's weekend that she will have Xmas day and my partner will have Xmas eve 10-8. It doesn't talk about alternating each year so his ex being how she is its clear from how she has interpreted the rest of the order that my partner will now never get to see his children on Christmas Day.
The day we received the order backin January we called the courts to ask what we have to do as there were errors on the document and it wasn't generic going forward as mentioned mainly things for justthat year. They advised we write to the judge to get the document changed. We did this via email the same day.
For the last 4 months we have heard nothing untilthis week we got a letter from the judge which simply had one line on it saying.
'We are disappointed that you felt you needed to get the court involved again.'
Words fail me! We paid and applied for something because of the issues we were having, would our choice have been to pay out tons of money just so he could get his selfish ex to allow him to see his own children (11yrs & 6yrs) of course not....but you'd hope that you'd get at least the original points you went to court in the first place included in your order along with the correct personal information.
So we waited 4 months for that response and still have a court order with other people's family circumstances etc on our court order... what a joke!
This is not about you not liking the outcome, this is about a factual,error that has now been ignored and responsibility for it pushed unfairly onto you. I think you should make an appointment and go and see your MP, perhaps they can raise it with the judicial omsbudsman.
You must be so frustrated with the whole system.
It's exactly that. Don't get me wrong he would have loved more time with his children but he got more than most but to have errors and to be brushed off after 4 months of waiting is appalling. I do think they sometimes take advantage of the fact that some Parents can't afford solicitors and try get you through the system quickly and if you aren't happy you pay again!
This might be a useful avenue to explore, but I would do it through your MP for extra clout.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/judicial-appointments-and-conduct-ombudsman
I agree with Mojo, definitely speak to your local MP and take this further, as the delay in receiving the order and subsequent reply from court means the time to appeal has passed.
It might also be worth calling Child Law Advice as they give free legal advice and are very good.
while I usually suggest contacting your MP as has been advised above, to be honest, at the moment I'd do everything you can yourself because MPs are unlikely to be likely to give anything their time before June 8th, and even after that, they'll probably not get around to constituent's matters for a couple of months after that.
Hi There,
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I think as already said this is awful, and the fact that the order has incorrect information on it, possibly means it isn't even a legal document and that if the ex doesn't want to comply there wouldn't be anything that could be done other than paying all over again and going back to court for a full order to be made, they may not even be able to vary the order you have.
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I would look at contacting the courts complaint department and going as far as you can as you have been treated very badly.
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GTTS
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