Taking ex back to court for order breach

If you are applying for enforcement of a contact order there is a guide CB5 to download from the HM Court Services website too. The fee is £80.

Fiona wrote:

If you are applying for enforcement of a contact order there is a guide CB5 to download from the HM Court Services website too. The fee is £80.

That information (CB5) is in the link provided by onamission.
It may cost £80 in Scotland but it cost me £175 in London, twice.

Yes, sorry, £175 is correct for applying for the enforcement of a contact order. £80 is the fee for applying to enforce an enforcement order.

Okay. Got it. 175 quid it is then! Will I have to say alot in court if am self repping? Does anyone know if there is there is a guide on the sort of stuff I should say anywhere? I'm not sure how buffed up my lawyer hat is...

MrCrunchy wrote:

Okay. Got it. 175 quid it is then! Will I have to say alot in court if am self repping? Does anyone know if there is there is a guide on the sort of stuff I should say anywhere? I'm not sure how buffed up my lawyer hat is...

You won't need to wear you're lawyers hat at this kind of hearing, just yer dads one.

Really you just state the facts and dates when she stopped contact.
Explain that contact was going very well until then.
She is the one who will have to come up with the big explanation as to why she took the law into her own hands, ignored the judges order (hopefully you'll have the same judge), and comitted contempt of court.

If she wanted to change or stop the contact she should have first applied for a vary of the order, not just decided to stick her fingers up to the court.

The judge will understand that as a layman you will not be familiar with court etiquet and he/she will assist you through the process and rap the other sides legal rep if they get out of order with you.
Absolutely nothing to worry about if you have done nothing wrong.

Just write a fairly short and to the point statement outlining what the contact was like and what happened, dates, corrospondence from your ex etc:

Am no expert but wanted to reply.

If the ex is represented, you can expect some negotiation outside the courtroom. You will be probably be offered 'some' contact and may feel pressure to accept this and walk away with a partial result rather that having the existing order re-instated. My advice would to politely stick to your guns.

In court, I would suggest keeping the issues as narrow as possible. You have a court order, it has been breached, you want it re-instated. Be factual, calm, to the point. It helps if you achieve some objectivity - which is hard when your so close to events.

Focus on your children, the damage to them by having a parent removed from their lives. Be wary of becomming sidetacked into responding to your ex's allegations. Keep to a narrow agenda, you want contact re-instated.

To be realistic, I think there is little chance of any real enforcement action being taken against your ex at this stage. The best outcome, I think, will be she gets a telling off.

With this in mind, at some point during the proceadings it might be good tactics to say '...what i want is contact re-established and if the ex is prepared to commit to that I would ask the court not to take enforcement action on this occaision but if the pattern repeats itself obviousely i will have no option but to return to seek enforcement of the order...'.

If your worried about public speaking you might want to make use of a position statemnts which basically sets out what you want to say to the court and is filed and served a few days before the hearing. I have sent you an example.

May I wish you the best of luck.

Just to add,
On each occasion that I returned to court for enforcement it never went to a full blown hearing.
It was just like a Directions hearing.
At the last one my ex refused point blank to reinstate contact and shouted at the judge.
The judge called the usher into the courtroom and told my ex that if she again refused to reinstate contact that afternoon he would immediately lock her up.
I sat there shocked as she was practically dragged out of the room by her barrister.
Ten minutes later we went back in, she agreed to comply and since then (over a year) she has toed the line.
I have also since then gained a shared residence order.