Custody hearing

Hi all

Can anyone give me any idea what happens in an initial custody hearing and then the procedure afterwards?

Is it important to have a legal representative or better to do it yourself if you are ok in the brains and common sense department?

Would a judge take into account the fact that my ex was cautioned for common assult last month or the fact that he gambles?

All info gratefully received.

Thanks

Becky

Hi Becky,

I've recently gone through this and have a final custody hearing at the end of Sept. Basically I would get legal representation at the start - I found that the judge involved really didn't want to engage with my ex2b or myself other than to confirm a couple of things - if your ex has a solicitor chances are they will tie you up in knots. Mine and her solicitors spent several hours going backwards and forwards and we were all interviewed by CAFCASS. They will take into account all types of things you raise in your initial statement - try to keep things factual rather than emotive.

At the time my ex2b had set me up with a semi-fictitious assault charge which was later dropped by the police as she had blatantly lied on her statement but was quite key according to the judge at the time so this may work in your favour. They will probably place an interim order in place, may well be a shared arrangement as we got, until the final hearing which in our case is 16 weeks after the interim hearing due to CAFCASS needing to sort out their reports.

Good luck!
Richard

Hi Richard

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, it's good to have an idea of what is going to happen before you get into court. Did you just get a solicitor involved or did you have to get a barrister as well - my ex2b has mentioning hiring one? After the initial hearing when did CARCASS start their work, days or weeks after?

Sorry to hear you've been going through it, hope it all works out well.

Cheers
Becky

Hi Becky,

A family solicitor should be enough - I think barristers only get involved for the divorce hearings. CAFCASS will probably get involved on the day of the hearing and beyond if an agreement can't be reached. They were quite clever with my hearing - they would take the kids off between both parents and monitor how they were with each, behaviour, happiness etc. They also interviewed my kids at length several times then and over the last few weeks to see if their feelings had changed. Both are adamant they want to stay with me so hopefully that will count in my favour! I think they tend to quite 12-16 weeks for reports but will place an interim order in the meantime.

Hope this helps.

Richard

So am I supposed to take my daughter to the hearing then - that seems very cruel?

I think thats usually the case but you'd need to check with your solicitor. I guess it depends on her age etc. My own daughters are 9 and 6 and very vocal!