If a father does not have parental responsibility - what does that mean?

[SillyGoatsGruff]

Hello
Looking for a bit of advice.

DH has been separated from his ex girlfriend for approximately 9 years, and they have an 11 yo ds.

Because it was pre 2003 and they were unmarried, he did not have parental responsibility.

He has been allowed to have regular contact with his ds on a two weekly basis, and he has always kept to this and always maintained his maintenance payments.

He has tried to put up with his ex's behaviour: changing contact dates, refusing to send DS, but over the past few weeks, things have become very difficult and she is refusing to send him now at all.

Where does he stand? He is reluctant to go to court as he doesn't want to upset DS by doing this, but does he have any rights to see his child at all, or will he need some sort of order?

At the moment, everything was set up between the two of them - no solicitors or courts have been involved in maintenance arrangements or contact arrangements.

Thanks.

He would get his PR and a contact order with no problem. He has had contact over a long period of time, so the ex can't claim he's nit the father/not being a good dad etc. He may well end up with more contact than he already has if he pushes for it

Why should it upset his ds? Has the ex said why she is contact blocking?

Hi and thanks for your reply.
Without going into the whole thing at length, the ex girlfriend tells the ds about virtually every conversation that they have, more so if they are not agreeing on something. So I think he feels that she would take offence to him going for parental responsibility etc (he's asked for a pr agreement but she tore up the form) and would try to make ds think he's in the wrong IYSWIM?

Sorry forgot to answer your other question. She is blocking contact because there was a mix up over holiday dates. She is adamant she gave DH x date for ds to be back and he thought it was the day after. She feels he did this deliberately (he didnt), so she says he is not reliable enough to have contact

I wish my exh was as nice as your OH SillyGoatsGruff

My husband had the same situation as your OH. He applied to the court for PR himself. He said he got a form from the local County Court - paid £80 (ish - it was a while ago). The court issued the paperwork to his exp and they had a day in court and it was granted.

My husband also did not have the same contact as your oh does with his 11 yr old, however as this was down to his job (crown employee) the court understood.

he should apply for PR via local court (ask tehm for forms or look online).

if he is not seeing him at all now then he needs to file at court - or offer her mediation to resolve theissue.

. he wont get anywhere by sitting back and doing nothing if she blocking contact.

He will get PR if he applies but should also ask for an order defining contact. Sadly, she will probably make contact more difficult in the short term if he does.
It sounds like this is a short term hiccup over the holiday dates and it would be worth trying to sort things out with her via mediation first. New rules (from 6 April 2011) mean that mediation has to be attempted before attending court anyway.