Advice on child access

mooch1uk

Can a father who has no parental responsibiltiy, pays CSA and fulfills current access arrangements, be forced by ex-partner into going to court and changing access arrangements? Can she dictate terms?

nickelodeon

It depends, why does the mother want to change the contact arrangements? If it's just to suit her she probably wouldn't get very far going to court, but if there is some other reason and she feels it is in the best interests of the children she may feel it is necessary to go to court.
Is there a court order in place regarding contact or have you agreed contact arrangements between you?

hobo28

In short yes.

Best thing to do is come to an agreement or compromise. If they can't then the courts are the only option I'm afraid.

Is ex wanting father to have more or less time?

gotobed

majority of Easter, Christmas and summer holidays as access at my house. She wants less time with him.

hobo28

gotobed wrote:

majority of Easter, Christmas and summer holidays as access at my house. She wants less time with him.

Eh?

Are you the same person (ie. mooch1uk) or have I missed something? I notice that you've also posted about maintenance issues so am a bit confused if this was posted in error or you are the same person with multiple ID's!?!?!

I had a similar issue with my ex once who wanted less time with her children and was adamant she was taking the matter up to court until I pointed out that the judge may be a little confused as to why she wanted LESS time.

However, I was the resident parent at the time so I suppose the question to you would be why would you NOT want to be able to spend more time with your own kids!?!?!

gotobed

Sorry yes, I am the same person but with my own id now. I have the boy 3/4 weekends, pay CSA to the max and also have to respond to unreasonable demands and police visits when I apparently do something wrong. The only time I have let down my child is the day my son was born last year and access has not altered since.
Agenda unknown from her.

thesaint

As I understand it,your ex is taking you to court to request more time for your child to spend with you, and you are ojecting.

I can't see this happening, a court would be foolish to force a child to spend more time with a parent that is reluctant to do so.

Parental responsibility and CSA payments won't come into it.

pippamannequin

She wont get legal aid if she somehow manages to convince it to progress to court, so that should put her off...
If she manages to force you to go to court with a different story to yours I honestly dont believe for one minute that she would be allowed to 'force' further contact with you and the child if you dont want it...Im sure cafcass would come in somewhere to try and find out what is obvioubsly going to progress at some later stage into something more than her wanting you to have the child more than you already do. Poor kid.

hobo28

Exactly. Legally speaking I don't think the courts for one second would compel you to take on more time if you didn't want to.

That said I know a lot of people who would love to be in your situation so why don't you try to discuss it and come to a compromise? Surely being offered the chance to see more of your children is no bad thing???

It saddens me to see two parents fighting because they want to see less of their children.

thesaint

hobo28 wrote:

Exactly. Legally speaking I don't think the courts for one second would compel you to take on more time if you didn't want to.

That said I know a lot of people who would love to be in your situation so why don't you try to discuss it and come to a compromise? Surely being offered the chance to see more of your children is no bad thing???

It saddens me to see two parents fighting because they want to see less of their children.

Although I don't see the reason(maybe work?), the OP does not want to see less of his child.
He just does not/cannot see him more, a small difference but an important one.

hobo28

Yes you are quite right. It is an important difference. My apologies. I'd just think most parents would jump at the chance for more contact with their kids but obviously I don't fully understand the situation so there may be some reasons.