court hearing yesterday

[smiler01]

Had an excellent result at the first hearing yesterday for my partners contact case

At mediation appointment 9 weeks ago the judge was very much unbiased towards his ex and said he wants contact to start soon as possible and ordered a number of things to be done ready for first hearing. partner is representing his self and did it all but his ex did nothing so at court yesterday the judge was very un happy with them plus they filed a witness statement at 7pm Friday night 6 weeks late which was full of lies so over weekend we did a response statement Inc lots of evidence proving all lies as the lies she told in her statement could possibly have an impact on what contact he gets

Anyway judge said no more delays I want contact to Start in next couple of weeks, it's supervised until next hearing date based on few things that needs doing.

As he's representing his self we would like to look ahead to next hearing to plan what next to ask for....the children are young both just turned 2&3 and he's about to see them for just 2 hours every other sat.

What is a realistic thing to request?? 
it will be un supervised as judge has already said so and we were thinking just to increase the length of time on the Saturdays but unsure for how long extra to request at present it will be 12-2 so maybe 11-3 or request a bit longer and wait to be knocked down a bit by his ex

Because the Children are so young would it be better to just slightly increase the length of time so it's not to long away from mummy etc and then once back at court couple of months on start getting a bit more detailed things sorted. Birthdays etc also for example PR was Inc in the application form for youngest and so far it's not been mentioned which is fine as contact starting is obviously the most important thing to deal with, or at next hearing do we start mentioning PR??

Any suggestions as to what things should be requested next would be great :-)

Thanks 

[countydurhamlass]

i would ask for a couple of more hours on a saturday, 11-3 would be ok AND perhaps see them for an hour during the week, say Wednesday, 3-4, 4-5, 4-6 (probably wouldnt go any later than ending at 6pm cos she will argue bedtime routine etc. You could suggest this happens for seven or eight weeks then build up to 10am - 6pm on a Saturday and continue the one hour during the week for another seven or eight weeks.

There is nothing wrong with setting up a plan for the following three/four months building up to a full day on a Saturday making it clear at the hearing that the end result you want is overnight (if that's what you want)

the final order does not have to state the days and times contact can take place but can be a "reasonable contact order" - could even just stipulate a minimum of x and other such contact that can be agreed between the parties.

[RandomMess]

For such young children I would be asking for more frequent contact to build up a relationship with them so they are confident and happy being away from Mum.

I would see what research based evidence there is around to support this as being in the dcs best interests.

Again yes absolutely I would be asking to build towards a long term plan of x y z