difference between county court and family proceed

In Jan 2010 we had a court order made in a county court allowing myself the father to have overnight stays with my 3 children. My ex has now put in a application for direction hearing to try and get this changed to no overnight stays and this is being heard in the family proceedings court.

What is the difference and will we be in the same room in order to bring up all of the points that i want to? I will be asking that the order stays in place and is not changed as the only reason for my ex asking for it to be changed is that she hates the thought of the boys staying with me as in her eyes thery are hers children or " mine" as she puts it. This is causing the oldest boy (8 yrs) lots of distress and i would also like to know if there is anything legally i can do to once proved to stop her from putting theboys through this. There are no new partners on the scene on either side.

The County Court uses Judges, the Family Proceedings Court (FPC) is operated under the auspices of the Magistrates court and uses Magistrates.

As Magistrates are unpaid, it is a cheaper option for the Court Services than the County Court whre there are paid Judges.

Due to the way the FPC operates there is usually a lot of waiting time and a lot of adjournments (i.e. more hearings).

The FPC will deal with the matter unless it becomes too complicated in which case they will bump it back to the County Court.

Charles