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Directions hearing and appointing an expert witness

J

JC83

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Hi all,

I had my first hearing recently. Ex snd her dab were pushing hard for a fact finding hearing. I won’t put to many details on here as my case is rather specific and I think ex and her mum may trawl this forum.

The judge requested a directions hearing to determine whether a fact finding hearing is necessary. Ex has to list her full range of allegations, with evidence and I then have to respond with my evidence and the judge will determine whether it needs to go to a fact find.

My dab strongly advised I get a solicitor to help me with responding to her allegations, writing my statement, and doing the bundle. Has anyone done it themselves and got any tips?

The other thing, is the ex has evidence to show she has got an injury (won’t go into specifics), which she is now saying was caused by me. She apparently has got a GP report which details the injury but I haven’t seen this yet. I have evidence to contest the GP report and how this injury was caused and my dab advised I approach an expert witness to view my evidence and provide evidence to help contest how it may have been caused. Has anyone appointed an expert witness directly or has this got to be done through a solicitor? I don’t want to mess this up and ex to throw out all the evidence I have on a legal technicality or throw out any expert witness statement.

Thoughts welcomed. Thanks
 
I wrote my own responses to multiple allegations from my ex. We had a 1/2 day interim hearing. Judge decided against FFH, I agreed to alcohol testing and made an undertaking not to harass the ex.

If anything, I went too far into details about her allegations. Showed loads of evidence that categorically disproved them. This just meant that she went to work on 3 or 4 hundred new allegations for the final hearing. If I did it again, I'd have more of a focus on her lack of evidence and hold more of my evidence back.

I'm not sure that an expert witness is necessary for a directions hearing. You should have permission before appointing an expert:

Post in thread 'ISW request received' https://www.dadswithkids.co.uk/threads/isw-request-received.2299/post-30708

Above thread gives the practice direction on expert evidence.

A FFH would be a win for your ex if the status quo is in her favour. Win or lose, she would have much more time with you on the shadows. My focus would be to show that a FFH is not warranted. Leave expert evidence for it that fails.

EDIT
Sorry to be so cynical, but I believe barristers and solicitors favour an approach that involves more work for them.
 
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thanks resolute.

It sounds like I should hopefully be OK to respond myself then.

The issue with mine (not sure what allegations you had) was ex said I physically harmed her and has evidence of an injury so it’s pretty serious. She also said I harmed my child. I think to try and get a FF dismissed I’m probably going to need to exhibit a fair bit of evidence. If I do this, and it’s dismissed, can she bring up the same allegations again? It’s mad they can make up loads of new stuff when they had the chance to raise things before.

Thanks for the link to the practice direction. It sounds like it’s an idea to hold off on expert evidence yet then.

How did your case go in the end? I was my child’s main carer and due to this the status quo has been totally flipped on its head.
 
He has been asked to submit evidence with a statement as well as responses to allegations.
 
JC83 said:
thanks resolute.

It sounds like I should hopefully be OK to respond myself then.

The issue with mine (not sure what allegations you had) was ex said I physically harmed her and has evidence of an injury so it’s pretty serious. She also said I harmed my child. I think to try and get a FF dismissed I’m probably going to need to exhibit a fair bit of evidence. If I do this, and it’s dismissed, can she bring up the same allegations again? It’s mad they can make up loads of new stuff when they had the chance to raise things before.

Thanks for the link to the practice direction. It sounds like it’s an idea to hold off on expert evidence yet then.

How did your case go in the end? I was my child’s main carer and due to this the status quo has been totally flipped on its head.
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Sounds hauntingly similar.

I had every allegation aside from physical abuse. This gave my ex time to reverse the status quo. None of her allegations stuck. But, they had already served their purpose. I ended up with default spends time with limited by distance. I went from being the centre of our child's life to jumping through hoops as a way of avoiding contact centre.
 
Resolute said:
Sounds hauntingly similar.

I had every allegation aside from physical abuse. This gave my ex time to reverse the status quo. None of her allegations stuck. But, they had already served their purpose. I ended up with default spends time with limited by distance. I went from being the centre of our child's life to jumping through hoops as a way of avoiding contact centre.
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Sorry to hear that. I fear my case is going the same way. Madness. My job is mostly remote working so I’m hoping I can move to near ex to hopefully put me in a half a chance of getting a decent order. I’m so disillusioned with the family court system it’s a joke.
 
JC83 said:
Sorry to hear that. I fear my case is going the same way. Madness. My job is mostly remote working so I’m hoping I can move to near ex to hopefully put me in a half a chance of getting a decent order. I’m so disillusioned with the family court system it’s a joke.
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It is hard, and shameful.

Sorry for what you are dealing with.

Things that help me:

Compare where I am to where I would be if I'd given up, rather than where I'd be if truth/fairness prevailed.

Remember kids love people they see less often just as much, if not more.

Write to your ex, the court, solicitors... With thoughts on how this would look to the child if they found records in XX years.
 
Thanks. That’s a good way to look at things as ex wants me dead/destroyed so if that were the case she’d definitely win and I wouldn’t see my child ever again.

I’ve got an NMO on me at the moment so can’t contact the ex. The judge yesterday basically said we need to think about the future and gave us a stern talking to to get on. I kept quiet but thought it’s not me making any allegations!! It’s one sided hostility!
 
I think every case is different and these are quite serious allegations and important to get them knocked on the head at this stage. The right evidence at this stage could avoid a fact find and it just move straight to a final hearing - which would be the best thing to happen.
 
Thanks ash. Sorry resolute I couldn’t say specifically what the allegations are as they will identify me easily to my case. Ash has been helping me massively behind the scenes 😃
 
I did suggest he posted to ask what others had done regarding responses to allegations and if they had used a solicitor, what tips they could offer :-) Or if they hadn't, what tips they could offer, so @Resolute has been very helpful. Just wondering if anyone else had had this situation and used a solicitor and had some tips. As well as others who did it themselves and how it went for them. Resolute - it's good your situation went no further.
 
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