Costs in the family court

[IronCladCape]

Hi,

So a bit of background. My daughter’s mum ceased contact between my daughter and I in June with no good reason. Her reasons are that “we don’t go out” and my daughter is bored at my house and she this is why she doesn’t want to see me. No safeguarding concerns mentioned.

These allegations are surprising as prior to withdrawing contacts, my weekends were organised around my daughter and I always ensured that we were out and about doing things. The dynamite here is that throughout time spent with my daughter, I provided regular photographic updates to the ex via WhatsApp and she has her ‘read receipts’ on. My solicitor told my ex of the presence of this evidence but this was ignored.

I then made an appointment with a mediator and Mrs ex refused to go, I then filed a C100.

Mrs Ex then repeated these allegations in respect of withdrawing contact to CAFCASS, along with making a load of fresh ones citing D&A use, testing requested at first hearing but judge declined as neither evidential nor proportionate.

We had a first court hearing a couple of months ago, and CAFCASS did a section 7 interview by phone last week (due to the D&A allegations and said that they were not going to recommend testing either). Whilst on the phone I sent CAFCASS the document I prepared detailing the WhatsApp and read receipts evidence, which they reviewed while we were on the phone and expressed their shock of Mrs Ex’s allegations.

My question is, if Mrs ex keeps making demonstrably false statements, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary and it can be proved that she has deliberately sought to mislead CAFCASS and the court by knowingly making false statements, statements that have caused me to incur further legal costs and things to have unnecessarily ‘dragged out’ due to the need to investigate them - have I got any scope to recoup my legal costs from her?

Has anyone had any success with this previously?

 

[Chi22]

I've not heard of this but that does not mean it has not happened.

It seems unlikely CAFCASS will come back suggesting a Fact Finding Hearing but your ex's bigger concern is that if they do and she lies under oath then she leaves herself open to charges of perjury.

 

[NewcastleBrownAle]

The reality is that people lie in family court and the courts just ignore it, they rarely sanction anyone for anything in family court. Try not to make the mistake of concentrating on your ex and her rubbish, but rather concentrate on your children. The court will see that you are rising above the noise and will think better of you and you will have a more favourable outcome.

Saying that, they can award costs, but you'll get yourself into a tricky corner if that's what you spend your court time arguing for. It might be worth arguing for after the court has decided on an outcome for your children, that's the time to wade in with a request for costs.

 

[nothernsoul]

Entirely agree with the above post.

Put all of your energy into securing the best CAO you can possibly get.

Mine is everything I wanted. Water tight and no wriggle room. It's literally priceless.

 

[Nujra Rof]

Entirely agree with the above post.

Put all of your energy into securing the best CAO you can possibly get.

Mine is everything I wanted. Water tight and no wriggle room. It's literally priceless.

any advice or tips on what to include on cao that people may sometimes forget about - and how to get best terms possible on cao?

I ask as so many people are unhappy with their cao and I’m going for mine now, first hearing in Jan and want 50/50

 

[nothernsoul]

any advice or tips on what to include on cao that people may sometimes forget about - and how to get best terms possible on cao?

I ask as so many people are unhappy with their cao and I’m going for mine now, first hearing in Jan and want 50/50

Feel free to fire me a direct message.

I'm going to be away for a couple of days and I'll likely end up forgetting so please do give me a nudge.

 

[Chi22]

Hi. 3 things come to mind:

- Ensure that the phrase, 'made available' is included in the Order. It's a point of law in an important case where Enforcement was sought and the resident was found not to be in breach because no breach was possible.

- If you're collecting more than one child, make sure that it states that if one is unwell the other must attend.

- Have the fact that you have parental responsibility recited the Recitals and that as a result you can seek education and health of the child yourself. If push comes to shove and you encounter obstruction from a school or GP, you can redact the Order and send.

 

[Ash]

I had a clause about schools at the end.

"Neither parent will change the child's school without the written agreement of both parents".

Now technically that comes under PR but I wanted it in the order to prevent a moonlight flit/move further away. A copy of the order was sent to the school so they would inform me if my ex ever handed in notice that the kids were moving school.

There are stories of ex's moving away during the summer holidays, having given notice to the school at the end of term, and Dad not finding out until September - only to find they have been moved and at another school.

To my mind, advance notice that an ex has said the child is leaving the school, allows for an urgent prohibited steps order to take place as soon as you find out.

Circumstances vary but I had been threatened with her moving away.

The other thing that's good to get, if you can, is a clause saying "Neither parent will move further than 20 miles away from their current location". Especially if you have a "lives with both parents order".

Also a line in it stating when the school holidays start and end. Eg is it the last day of term and including all the week-ends? Or is it the first Monday after the end of term (so the first week-end is part of the normal term time schedule). Without that there are arguments and hassles over when the holidays start and you can't plan properly.

A clause for "special days" (eg child's birthday, Mothers Day Fathers Day) to ensure you get Fathers day each year and child's birthday on alternate years (this might depend when child's birthday is - if it's during school holidays then just alternate the holiday weeks each year).

Otherwise you just want to make sure wording is watertight with clear dates and times for collections and drop offs, and ideally, defined holiday weeks so you know exactly which weeks you have in the summer holidays, and what date the summer holidays starts - and can book holidays well in advance.

Christmas arrangements - people want different things. Some people want to just split it in half and alternate the halves. Others want the kids going back and forth every 3 or 4 days. But Christmas day at least should be alternated.

 

[Ash]

A tip I was given from a solicitor as well was that "special days" should be ordered from 5pm the night before until 9am the morning after. Eg 5pm on the Saturday night before Father's day until 9am on the Monday morning. So the child wakes up in Dad's house on the morning, gets the full day and goes to sleep there at the end of the day. It doesn't have to be that - you might choose to have it from 10am on the day instead.

And a line saying that this clause will only apply if the child isn't already scheduled to be with you that week-end.