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Query about final hearing

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Fellowshipper

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So I've now had the hearing I've been on about these past few weeks, and to be honest despite my fairly good S7 report this particular visit to court paradoxically ended up being the worst experience to date. I don't wish to discourage other fathers with this because as always it doesn't necessarily follow my experience will be replicated with everyone else that shall follow in their own respective cases etc, but this was the one occasion where I literally felt as though my presence in that room was negligible, at best. None of my views or arguments were taken into consideration at all, even when the magistrate said at the very outset he'd hear both sides. Within only the first 10 minutes it dawned on me that all their interested in that courtroom is solicitor's prior written commentary and proposals, and unless you've got your own barrister they will simply go with whatever your missus' solicitors say.

He mentioned something about co-parenting being the best outcome (even though none of my views were taken in to consideration to that effect) and that a final hearing is better to be avoided. However, if that means I have to keep going to that place time and again just to get humiliated and get crumbs off the table, then I am inclined to disagree with his view. The question I have then is what exactly happens when the case finally gets put before a judge? What is the procedure and most importantly- does my own position get validated at all?
 
Do you have your own solicitor or professional mckenzie friend?

I went through the magistrates 3 times before seeing a judge, due to false allegations from my ex partner, and found that things progressed much more quickly and better when a judge took control.
 
unless you've got your own barrister they will simply go with whatever your missus' solicitors say.
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That is often the case - especially with magistrates. What was the outcome of the hearing?
 
Jgallagher1988 said:
Do you have your own solicitor or professional mckenzie friend?

I went through the magistrates 3 times before seeing a judge, due to false allegations from my ex partner, and found that things progressed much more quickly and better when a judge took control.
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That's what I am uncertain of without having the right legal advice beforehand. The magistrate is trying to sell me the trope that I am somehow getting a "good deal" and, as I understood it, it is better for things to "evolve" until we reach a good place with the now current arrangements, then have to take it all to a final hearing. But if a final hearing is actually that which I've been seeking all along (i.e. to order concrete terms of co-parenting rather than keep pulling me around by the nose without any real kind of resolution in sight in the future) then I've got no regard for that magistrate and his interim order.
 
Ash said:
That is often the case - especially with magistrates. What was the outcome of the hearing?
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Please also refer to my other reply above, in addition to the following.

An interim order has been made in which I will have three monthly visits with my children starting this month, and then based on the general outcome of those visits the next hearing shall apparently result in the introduction of a parenting app (but I must stress that there's absolutely no promise in this regard, rather it is something which is being presented as contingent on my "performance" in the next few months).
 
Do you mean three times a month or one every three months?
 
nothernsoul said:
No way would I be accepting this.

The "general outcome" will be mum calling the shots and you powerless
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That's exactly how I felt at the end of the last hearing, actually. At no hearing prior to that did it seem like I was so inferior in my position, I just assumed (naively) that the NMO had simply to run its course, then my "good behaviour" will have gotten firmly established followed by a good show with the S7.
 
Ash said:
Do you mean three times a month or one every three months?
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once every three months. That was also proposed at the hearing several months earlier than the most recent one, which I would not accept on principle (but I eventually acknowledge I had to practically) but I also wanted regular video calls arranged via the app and the ability to pick up and drop off children without use of intermediaries. Each request of mine was denied. Personally, I still don't understand why that particular panel on the last occasion held that the app is the good way to go (I was the only one who even suggested it in my statement) I would still get slapped with an interim order, which happens to specifically make me do that which I find the most difficult i.e. recruit intermediaries. I made it clear in at least the two of my last position statements that this is a very difficult thing for me to organize, but I am confident now the opposing solicitor decided it was going to be easy to beat me, simply because I have admitted a handicap which will immediately put to my question my suitability to provide adequate care for my children. It's really not the case at all, but both my children are labeled special needs and in practice they are each so different in their needs it makes much more sense to see each one individually and nurture them accordingly. Again, I mentioned my desire to have them individually in at least two of my previous statements, but the solicitor insisted I have them together, as both children "depend on structure" which includes being together all of the time, owing to their special needs. Which is totally fabricated rubbish but even if I thought to challenge that view in the court room it seemed obvious very early on in the hearing I wasn't being listened to, so I just froze for fear of making things worse somehow.
 
Sorry I just realised my mistake above. It's once per month for three months until the next hearing after the new year.
 
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