Section 7 report arrived late - less time to reply

[childfirst]

We all have moments like you are having now - Sending you a big hug.

Remember one day in the future when the children are older and they understand things will change.

You owe it to your children to dust yourself down over the coming days and fight for the right to part of the childrens lives. You may not get what you want in this hearing but from this you build and continue to push for advancement.

I am positive the community are 110% behind you and will do whatever we can to support you over the coming days.

Fight Fight Fight

 

[Ash]

Hang in there Mountain Goat. This is just a Cafcass officer's report. I am really sorry your ex has pressured the kids to say this. How old are they? It must be obvious they've been coached and it contradicts with the previous section 7 report.

It's very distressing to hear these words, but you have to get grounded ready for the fight. These are words. There are other words that can undermine them. You still have your statement to do and that will show balance and good reason for your kids to have a relationship with you.

You can state in it that you are shocked to hear the childrens expressed wishes have changed completely from the previous Section 7 report and you feel this are not their ascertainable wishes (and quote case law on that - we can help with that).

You can also cross examine the Cafcass officer at the final hearing and get that report undermined. Did they see the kids with you? Or just with the ex? I assume the latter - in which case that's a good way of undermining the report as flawed.

The Judge may see straight through this and decide the Mother has manipulated the children.

It's good to let it out but don't let it get you down. You still need to fight for your kids against this psychological warfare.

I think it's going to be very hard for you to represent yourself at this final hearing, and you really need someone fighting your corner. Is there any way you can afford a barrister for the hearing?

 

[Pj66]

@MountainGoat hang in there, section 7 reports are not easy and yous need to put it out of mind for a few days and compose yourself.

I'm going to be very blunt with you and I hope you take this advice.

You need to do whatever you can to make sure you have barrister for this final hearing. Upon reading some of your comments I can see the emotions can be raw and I think the situation you are in now is too deep without proper legal representation.

If you have a decent barrister for this final hearing, I can guarantee you they will shred your exes and the social workers narratives to pieces, there is to many levels of incongruence in your exes story. Sit down with one and have a conference call and go through the case and point out the key areas that trip the ex up, try and sort through the noise and pick the main points that demonstrate her intent.

This is no longer about avoiding conflict in that court room, you need a barrister that is going to go after the jugular and expose absolutely everything with precision that you ex has done based on the evidence. Fight her with everything you have got, you will win! This is war, you need to channel your energy into this and focus.

 

[nothernsoul]

Mt heart breaks for you mate.

But, read the posts above over and over. You're still in this fight and have every chance of turning it around.

I couldn't agree more on the barrister angle.

Rip her apart.

 

[Peanut 21]

I've followed your story @MountainGoat since the beginning. You, understandably, were really low at the start. I've read as you've built yourself back up and your fighting spirit grew.
This is just a blip. Have a wallow but come back stronger.
Please believe me when I say those are not your children's real thoughts of beliefs. They love you. Children never ever turn on a parent by themselves. They will have lovely memories of time with you but their mother is dictating their thoughts.
They may not know it right now but they need you. They need strong, stable dad to keep fighting for when they can break free.
We can all help you get through this next round of bs.

 

[Ash]

I also fully agree on getting a Barrister - find the funds from somewhere. If a good barrister can pull your ex's arguments apart and get you a good court order, that in itself will positively affect the criminal trial IMO.

 

[MountainGoat]

Thankyou everyone for your support.

I finally received the report yesterday afternoon. It was 12 days late. I work full time and no way will be able to get this done by Monday next week.
My report will be late and I have emailed the courts to say that due to the late report I may have to file mine late too.
It just isnt fair otherwise. I can't rush this!

What is truly alarming is that even though the social workers S7 report was 12 days late it looks like it was never proofread at all.
Several names are either spelt wrong, have the wrong persons name, and there are sentences that are half sentences. It grammatically doesnt make sense.

Examples include: Getting my name and my childrens names wrong, saying "Dad taken back will bring the children" which makes no sense.
On other occasions the sentences are not even readable and are as if this report has been done via a talking app or AI.
It is truly not professional at all.
She talks about the grandad and grannie and gran but does not specify if it is on my side of the family or stbx. It is very difficult to read.


What truly shows she is on my ex's side is that I've come accross the report saying "Dad has been harassing mothers solicitor about finances and the divorce". WTF has that got to do with child arrangements!!!!!

I've also had the social worker say in this report that stbx should not be having to do half the journeys because she was blocked in a carpark by my mum and dad, something that NEVER happened. I have now seen evidence which suggests she had no problem doing drop offs.

The report is flawed on so many levels.

I'm just wondering on the best way to tackle it all. I am currently trying to go through it and address each point the social worker has made.

I belive that the report has been clearly rushed and because of the fact there have been 3 social workers (due to stbx kicking off and complaining when one makes a decision that doesnt suit her) they hardly know me or my interaction with the children!

 

[nothernsoul]

Hello mate.

This is all positive for you.

Such a haphazard and error strewn report should be challenged in the courts.

Any progress on the barrister?

 

[Resolute]

Thankyou everyone for your support.

I finally received the report yesterday afternoon. It was 12 days late. I work full time and no way will be able to get this done by Monday next week.
My report will be late and I have emailed the courts to say that due to the late report I may have to file mine late too.
It just isnt fair otherwise. I can't rush this!

What is truly alarming is that even though the social workers S7 report was 12 days late it looks like it was never proofread at all.
Several names are either spelt wrong, have the wrong persons name, and there are sentences that are half sentences. It grammatically doesnt make sense.

Examples include: Getting my name and my childrens names wrong, saying "Dad taken back will bring the children" which makes no sense.
On other occasions the sentences are not even readable and are as if this report has been done via a talking app or AI.
It is truly not professional at all.
She talks about the grandad and grannie and gran but does not specify if it is on my side of the family or stbx. It is very difficult to read.


What truly shows she is on my ex's side is that I've come accross the report saying "Dad has been harassing mothers solicitor about finances and the divorce". WTF has that got to do with child arrangements!!!!!

I've also had the social worker say in this report that stbx should not be having to do half the journeys because she was blocked in a carpark by my mum and dad, something that NEVER happened. I have now seen evidence which suggests she had no problem doing drop offs.

The report is flawed on so many levels.

I'm just wondering on the best way to tackle it all. I am currently trying to go through it and address each point the social worker has made.

I belive that the report has been clearly rushed and because of the fact there have been 3 social workers (due to stbx kicking off and complaining when one makes a decision that doesnt suit her) they hardly know me or my interaction with the children!

I suggest you look at the report as a structure.

Individual sentences being unintelligible, or downright lies, doesn't really matter. Quoting your ex as though what she says is fact, doesn't really matter. They are trained not to write in a way that calls 'victims' into question. The points that matter are only really those that recommendations are based upon.

If a lie or gobbledygook forms the basis of a recommendation. You have cause to request that the court disgard the recommendation.

Within the report there will likely be points where the author declares that this or that is important to the child; that the child needs...; that the priority should be...

Agree!

But show how a different course of action is necessary to serve various targets the report correctly identifies.

A comprehensive list of every spelling mistake and grammatical error will not convince people that you are in the right. Errors should be registered with the author and/or their manager for correction. You then have all that on record. Ideally, you will receive a revised report. If not, you submit the request with your statement as proof that you followed process. It will only be necessary to refer to errors you found substantive.

 

[Resolute]

they mentioned they know “daddy was a bad man and has hurt mummy”.

There is no way that either parent should be using children as their shoulder to cry on. Anything that happened between you and her is nothing to do with them. There is no place they could get that other than from your ex. Their words are a very poor reflection on her. It is not on to burden children with our pain, our job is to protect them.

 

[Peanut 21]

There is no way that either parent should be using children as their shoulder to cry on. Anything that happened between you and her is nothing to do with them. There is no place they could get that other than from your ex. Their words are a very poor reflection on her. It is not on to burden children with our pain, our job is to protect them.

100% @Resolute

 

[Ash]

Sounds like a barrister could rip that report to shreds in court!

 

[Ash]

Mountain Goat, I can help you structure your statement and responses when you get time to start it. Try and make a start on it two weeks before your submission date (which can now be a week later presumably). Because it can take time to fine tune a witness statement.

I don't normally help with witness statements - it's too big a job usually! But I can give some pointers.