Legal Question in Family Law in United Kingdom
Child Access
Since my partner split up and divorced from his ex he has been seeing his children every weekend for the last three years. He has always paid maintenance, and until recently the ex has now denied him access to see his children. She got the police involved which has been sorted to my partners advantage. The ex wanted to put on excessive demands eg having children for four full weeks through summer holidays, every full weekend, all holidays etc, that my partner couldn't do because of work commitments to provide for his children, so she now says that its that or nothing. His solicitor has now put forward a mediation meeting that she also refused to co-operate with. It has been suggested that his only option is to take her to court which is a cost of �5000 upwards. My partner is going out of his mind as it was mentioned st the divorce that the children were to be put first and now after three years of contact she is now denying him of this. He has never stopped his payments and I would like to know whether is taking her to court the right way to go given the expense and whether she has to turn up or not.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Child Access
Hello
The behaviour of your partner's former wife is clearly unreasonable and pays no regard to the best interests of the children.It is unlikely to change and certainly in my experience, mediation even if agreed would have been a total waste of time and money.
You are absolutely right in saying that when deciding matters concerning children, the interest of the child is the court's paramount interest. It has been decided time after time that the best interest of children is to remain in regular contact with both parents following breakdown of a marriage. Thus there can be no sensible doubt that any court would order that your partner have proper and meaningful contact with his children.
The circumstances here are that the only effective route open is to apply to the court for a contact order.I am amazed and horrified that you have been told that this could cost more than �5,000. It need only cost a few hundred. The procedure is relatively straightforward and there are no particularly difficult legal issues.Our organisation Legal-Zone has available all the necessary information to enable a person to apply themselves for a contact order, or we will deal with matters on your behalf for a very affordable price. Please get in touch if you would like us to take things further.
Andrew Dutton
Legal Zone
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