14 yr old wanting to attend court/instruct solicitor

daska

tandraig wrote: »

and what is this that kids shouldnt appear in court - the case is about them and surely they have the right to be there! once they are of an age to understand!

quote from CAFCASS site

Can I go to court if I want?
Children and young people have no right to attend a court hearing unless the judge says they can. Judges don’t often agree to this as they are worried about the effect it may have on young people and their families. Sometimes the judge may decide that a young person should attend court. This isn’t common either but it may happen in particularly difficult cases or when young people have very strong views and understand what is happening well enough to be able to give instructions to their own solicitor. If this is a possibility in your case then the Children and Family Reporter should discuss it with you.

Fire_Fox

At 14 I think it's very important to have an element of control over your own life, obviously within all the normal boundaries. In this case your step-daughter would have a solicitor protecting her interests, and presumably the judge. I also think if you don't let her do this and her mum is awarded overnight visits, she may not find it easy to forgive you ... and you may not find it easy to forgive yourself!

daska

tandraig wrote: »

but she is fourteen and i think you will find you cant force her to do anything she doesnt want to - even if its against court ruling.

tell me about it! We know that mum has breached the order deliberately at least once but, obviously, having discovered that mum was doing this we had the responsibility to do what we could to prevent it. But, at the end of the day, if we're told DSD is at x and she's really at y what can we do. We've put in some safeguards e.g. we ring on landline numbers at a time when she should be 'safely home', we organise the overnight contact with the hosts named on the order etc. Problem is that DSD is an attractive 14 yr old and is therefore more vulnerable now than she was at 10.

elfen

Also, given her age, the judge will be more likely to take into account her wishes, and hear them without being influenced by either of her parents - so her mum can't use her granddad against her - and it won't look as though she's being coerced.