Hi I have had some useful advice on here before and hoping someone could answer a few questions . I will try to be brief and not drip feed !
We (myself and DH) are the respondents to a contact application made for contact request to our son from his paternal grandmother . This is someone with we or our child have no relationship . We saw each other a handful of times when our son was born after offering the olive branch . It became apparent quite quickly things had not changed and all contact was stopped .
We have had two directions hearings 1st leave granted for grandmother and the 2nd ,after filing statements and cafcass report , has been forwarded for a final hearing .
The questions I have are ,
Cafcass have only recommended indirect contact . We and the grandmother do not want this , we NO contact , her weekly direct unsupervised contact . She is legal aid funded . So are we right in thinking that she cannot pursue direct contact at the final hearing (against cafcass recommendations ) as she is unlikely to win and therefore based on merit would not be able to use her solicitor to do this ??? ( sorry if I've not worded correctly we are self representing and find some of the detail confusing )
We are unable to afford a solicitor but feel as we are united in our desision and clear for our reasons why (DH had abusive childhood to name a one) we can get this information across in court and have provided a good detailed statement . The only concerns we may have are cross examining her , what type of thing do we need to ask if all the information is already in our statements ? Her statement is a personal attack on both of us and even stating that my DH was a handfull as a child and probably an instigator of some of the abuse !!!!!!!! Also that we are controlling as parents as we would only allow her to visit on our terms.
Do we just try to highlight these things from her statement ??
To be honest we can't believe it has got this far there is NO relationship to protect and feel like we have nobody to turn to !! As we are still together womans aid and families need fathers type support are set up for seperating parents . I feel like writing to my mp but don't know if that would be appropriate ?!
Anyway if anyone can offer advice I would be very grateful and sorry it's a long post !!
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Legal matters
Final hearing , legal aid vs self rep
21 replies
Fifi782005 · 28/11/2012 09:28
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