Access court orders

[poorbuthappy]

I have no knowledge (thankfully) of this and have just been told the following by a friend:

She has to make her child available for her ex to see, but the ex is under no obligation to turn up to the pre-arranged collection place and collect his child.

Is this true? And if it is then can someone explain the logic behind it?

Correct. Her responsibility is to make the child available for contact. He has no legal obligation to turn up.

Obviously if he makes a habit of not turning up she should apply for a suspension of the contact order.

Why is there no obligation?

Because the balance of power is with the parent with care of the child, I guess.

I agree that it seems odd, but tbh if the dad has taken the mum to court over contact, he's extremely unlikely not to turn up.

It's in no-one's interest to force contact. If the absent parent isn't interested/bothered enough to take up the opportunity, nothing will be gained by forcing them. As the previous poster noted though, if he repeatedly doesn't turn up, she can apply to change the order as it's clearly not working in the child's interest.

how could it ever be enforceable anyway?

my ex took me to court.....but it had nothing to do with seeing his children,it was just to still use his control over me!! a section 91 order took that away from him....

ILoveTiffany...sounds like you were in the same situation as my friend.
He petitioned the court for access and now regularly doesn't turn up. Apparently he did exactly the same thing to his other ex and his eldest child.
Oddly enough the women are good friends now...

Doesn't the court see this "no obligation" thing as another way for the absent parent to control the situation? Surely if they petition court and then not turn up (without an extrememly good reason) they do not have the best interests of the child at heart?

He has told her many times that he enjoys forcing her to have the child available and not turning up, and also making her explain why he doesn't turn up.

cafcass recognised he wasn't showing any commitment,and was using the court arena as a way of controling me and messing me around.

when he was a no show in court twice running and had failed to call the dc on pre arranged times,a section 91(14) was requested and the judge was persuaded......no more applications to court for 6 years without leave of the courts first....result!

He has requested the contact (presumably because they disagreed or wanted different arrangement or she was witholding contact). The court has ordered the contact to go ahead and has specified when. They wouldn't order it if he hadn't requested it so assume he will be there.

So she is now obliged to make the child available for contact. If she had made child available before presumably it wouldn't need to have been ordered... (Yes i know it doesn't always work that way)

But anyhow. The court assumed he will be there as he has requested the contact. She has to make the child available for it.

If he doesn't turn up and messes her (and the court) around then she simply goes back and shows he was not serious about it and asks for the contact order to be withdrawn/suspended.

Most dad's who go to the lengths (and costs) of court will turn up and want the contact. But there are a few who don't, for whatever reason.

I don't entirely agree with some of what is posted above. It is true that courts will not order contact with an unwilling parent because it is doubtful that being cared by someone not interested in them is in a child's best interests. If no one will care for a child they go into care. However, it has long been recognized that parents without the majority of care who pursue contact will often not commit or comply with arrangements and new measures introduced by the Children and Adoption Act 2006 were in part directed against this.

This means that since December 2008 all contact orders and a warning notice about non compliance are served on both parties so either party may apply for enforcement. If it makes contact orders work for the benefit of children it is open to courts attach contact activity conditions or make contact activity directions for either or both parents to attend parenting classes or programmes to address DV etc.