Legal Aid at Family court and CSA problems.

Dashworth87

Good Afternoon All.

Legal Aid Question first:

I took the mother of my children to family court in May 2023 and after a 2 day hearing, I was provided a very detailed court order drafted by my barrister as I was the applicant.
My ex partner then instructed her barrister to make so many amendments to to the court order that it effectively became nothing like the judge had ordered.

This meant that 2 copies of the order went to the judge who stated that it would need to return to court for another day.
The final day came in August and the judge effectively spent 2 hours shouting at my ex partner as she had attempted to change so much of his order. His last words to her before dismissing the matter was 'I have absolutely no doubt I will be seeing you back in my court room MIss *****. It is simply a matter of when'. Encouraging right?

It was signed and I now have approx. 40% custody of my children during term time and equal custody of them during school holidays.

This was done at great expense to me and my extended family who I had to beg and borrow money from to afford the legal fees. My ex partner received legal aid throughout due to multiple allegations of child abuse and domestic violence.
(I want to add that I have never abused my children or my ex partner in any way shape or form. thankfully the judge was able to see this and all allegations of that nature were dismissed)

subsequently I became aware that my ex partner was attempting to appeal the decision but had been refused any more legal aid on the grounds that 'a reasonable person would not appeal the decision as a substantially different outcome is highly unlikely' or words to that effect. As a result, there was no appeal.

Moving forward 6 months, My ex partners behaviour is getting increasingly worse. Some aspects of her behaviour, whilst not in breach of the court order, are having a damaging effect on the children.

more importantly though, there have been two breaches since August which is causing me to consider going back to court. I honestly believe that if I give this women an Inch, she will take a mile and her behaviour is only going to get worse

My concern moving forward is the cost implicated in taking her back to court. I have looked at specific issue orders and enforcement/breach orders but Its getting to the point now where I think that It is in the children's best interest to spend the majority of their time with me rather than their mother who has more interest in collecting a CSA cheque from me every month that actually looking after the children. 

As there has been no direct contact with her save from handovers midweek during term time (I ALWAYS ENSURE SOMEONE COMES WITH ME), there don't appear to be any grounds for her to make further malicious claims of domestic abuse. My concern would be that she starts encouraging the children to make allegations of child abuse which she has previously tried to encourage.  

With all of the above in mind, If I were to take my ex back to court for a multitude of breaches and appalling behaviour, Would she qualify for another huge chunk of government money having been turned down for aid to launch an appeal. 

CSA QUESTIONS:

I am 5 years into paying child support. Initially when I was told I would need to pay CSA, I complied. I informed the CSA that due to my vocation, I received my wages on the 20th of every month. I asked if i could defer my first payment (due on the 1st of the month) and pay on the 20th. I was told that this was acceptable.

Subsequently my online account showed me with arrears to the value of 1 months payment. I could understand this as I had deferred my first payment by 20 days. I was told that this would be added to the next financial years calculations and my payments would go up or down accordingly.

The following year or two, the same amount of money was shown as in arrears on my CSA account after one or two months of being shown at 0. Again I queried it and they informed me that there had been a change in circumstances and that it was normal and it would resolve itself by the end of the financial year. 

the following year, prior to the court order above, due to the claims my ex had made against me in respect of domestic violence and child abuse, I sadly had to spend 4 months seeing the children for 2 hours every other week at a contact centre. (probably the lowest I've ever felt in my life)

My ex immediately took the opportunity with the CSA to state they were spending no overnights with me and my CSA doubled overnight to an absolutely eye watering amount.  

Following on from the court hearing, and receiving a healthy amount of custody of my children, I  submitted the court order to the CSA and showing I had almost 50% custody of the children.

I submitted this in August. It is now December. Whilst my payments have reduced to a far more manageable amount, The arrears shown on my account is now in excess of £1000. 

I have sent a letter to the CSA asking for a break down and how they have established that I owe them this money but I have not heard anything for almost a month now.

Can someone explain to me what on earth is going on. 

My payments are due to be reduced further in the new year and the last thing I want is come April 2024, they add the arrears currently shown outstanding on my account.

Thanks in advance if you've made it to the bottom of my post.