grounds for an appeal?

[strongandfocused]

My ex is trying to get a shared residency order. he is Italian, has been over a couple of years has married a woman from his home town and they both live in the UK and complain about it to my ds. He went for full custody 4 years ago in Italy I was given it instead so then he followed us back too Uk where he has been giving me grief ever since.....They want to have a baby and my fear is the joint res order is just another step to then move back to Italy with my son.
We've been attending court since last year and now its been listed for a 2 day final hearing next month.
He originally got an interim contact order as he proclaims to have been having regular midweek contact up until the court case (lies)
The judge at last hearing decided against interim contact as he said it was so close to the CAFCASS report that we might as well wait. I was in total agreement. He also denied them permission to appeal.
We were all interviewed by CAFCASS and our ds plainly said he did not want mid week contact and that he liked it "exactly the way it is". Both of us were made aware of this and Im am upset that he is trying to make something happen that his son plainly does not want...
They did appeal and got a date and I wrote a letter to the court and the appeal was stopped. However today Ive just found out he written another letter to court and challenged it yet again and a hearing to determine whether he has a right to appeal has been granted!
Its all crazy. Ive just spoke to lawyer who has not been able to advice me this week because my legal aid was temporarily suspended through absolutely no fault of my own. There may not be possible to instruct counsel now as it is such short notice.

I cant believe that they are even letting him have a hearing to consider if an appeal should be allowed when its so close to the final hearing and CAFCASS reports!

I feel like Im in the last scene of the terminator!

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[mumblechum1]

Ok, firstly, don't panic. The hearing to decide whether he has a right to appeal is just that; you say your final hearing is next month - as you haven't specified a date, let's assume it's the 15th April.

Your ex's application for leave to appeal will be listed, let's say, 10th March at the earliest. At that hearing, the judge is not going to grant interim contact, he or she is going to decide whether to set down the appeal before 15th April. On the 10th March (these are all dates picked out of the air for the purpose of illustration), the court lists will be full for a minimum of 4 weeks for anything likely to last longer than 20 minutes or so. So unless something big comes out of the list, the earliest the court could possibly list the appeal (I would imagine this would be on a time estimate of two hours minimum), would be likely to be 10th April.

I personally think it unlikely that a judge will list a hearing for an appeal for interim contact to be heard 5 days before the two day hearing.

Obviously, the danger is if the final hearing is significantly later than 15 April and/or something big does come out of the list, leaving a slot for the appeal.

[strongandfocused]

Thanks for your advice mumblechum1 I shall try to keep calm. Surely no decision should be made on interim contact id ds does not want it?
I hope my ds does not get forced into something against his wishes as that seems to be what his father is doing.
We had another court order in Italy where I was given full custody and my xs narcissistic motivations were picked up in the psychology report. The judge mentioned this in his order.
Surely this is what he's doing now? I hope the judge will see this.

[mumblechum1]

I 'm only really advising on the mechanics of the listing procedure, given limited info in your OP of the relevant dates.

Whether the judge makes an order decides on a broad range of factors which hopefully your solicitor has explained.

[strongandfocused]

yes Im aware of that but thanks anyway.