Application for Legal Aid

[dongela]

Hi Mumsnetters,
I was wondering if anyone can put my mind at rest.
I have received notification that my ec has applied for legal aid for contact.
He left me when I was three weeks pregnant and that would have been the end of that if I had not contacted him after the birth.
His first suggestion of contact was that he was going to have a cot in his flat which he shared with two other men. Also - he is a working musician and lives the full lifestyle including heavy dope use. He also sells drugs (I'm not a bitter ex, it was a short relationship and I don't use drugs).
Since he wouldnt listen to me I suggested that we try mediation. I arranged the appointment and paid for it (a donation). I attended my appointment but ex never showed up.
I have it in writing for the Mediation place saying that they had written to him and left vm's for him to arrange an appointment but that he hadn't responded.
Instead he sent a solicitors letter saying that he wanted my daughter 2 nights a weeks and that his Mum would be collecting her. I responded that I would wish him to pass a drug test and that we could then try mediation again.
He has now applied for legal aid as contact is only made when 'it suits me'.

My daughter is now 2 and a half and it's true that all contact so far (or attempts at it) have been made by me. He has never once just phoned me or written to me to ask for contact. Instead he has made totally inappropriate demands through a solicitor.

He is lying about being unemployed aswell. He has a recording studio which he now claims he doesn't work in anymore. If they manage to catch him working, he should be denied legal aid as he has never submitted any information to the tax office so he has no proof of income for his work (which also means he pays no child support).

I'm just really looking for my mind to be put at rest that he wouldnt be granted legal aid to take me to court when I've actually offered very reasonable contact since she was born and he actually did not have my new address then.

Thanks!

I can't say if he'd get legal aid or not, but he certainly won't get 2 overnights a week with a small child he's never seen.

Yes I would hope so!

He's just not willing to meet halfway to arrange anything. He wants to tell me what to do and if I refuse he wants the Courts to force me.

If I hadn't called him and given him the benefit of the doubt when she was born Iwould have never heard from him again, as refused to see me when I was pregnant and I had moved house.

I'm hoping that aswell as being turned down that he has to repay all these solicitors fee's as I don't think the Legal Aid Board are as easy to outwit as the CSA! Just can't eat or sleep for worrying about it....

Please eat and sleep, you need to keep yourself healthy and strong. I doubt he'll actually follow through on anything, particularly if he has to pay lawyers, but at the very most he'll have to start off with an hour or so of supervised contact in a contact centre. (You don't have to be there, there will be people appropriately trained.) If he proves reliable over a period of time, contact would gradually increase.

But the likes of him generally can't be arsed. He's doing it to control and upset you, if he was really interested in his child he wouldn't be threatening her mother like that.

(Which is absolutely not saying that fathers who have to resort to the Courts to see their DC are abusive; my own DS is currently in this situation because his ex has gone mad suddenly refused contact, after more than a year of regular contact.)

You need to separate the issues about legal aid from the issues about contact.

For legal aid, there are two tests - there are financial eligibility criteria and there is the 'merits' test, which basically means that your ex-partner must have a decent chance of winning the case. There is more information on the DirectGov website. If you think your ex-partner is misrepresenting his financial situation, you can inform the Legal Services Commission, but you need to check first whether they will inform your ex-partner.

Please go and get some legal advice of your own.

Hi,

Thanks for all your replies. I have spoken with my solicitor who says that she has it in writing from his solicitor that he admits to his drug use (!!) and that the Court would only intervene if he can prove that there is no other way for contact to be arranged.

She is of the opinion that he will probably get legal aid as I have no way of knowing which venues he will be working at and I would imagine he will have his business partner run the studio at the moment. But when he actually raises the Court Action, and I have evidence of repeated attempts to arrange appropriate contact which he has turned down, that the Sheriff may recommend Mediation as a way to resolve it.

He would not be interested in this as what OLDLADYKNOWSNOTHING is true, and he seeks to leave me powerless with regard to my Daughters care, and have that decision placed with a third party. My solicitor says that I have to stop thinking 20 paces ahead of myself and to just 'address the matter in hand'. Which is easier said than done! Having a wee cry just now! He is just enjoying the official way in which he can cause anxiety and upset to me again (having used the DNA test process before).

It just seems such a waste of the Courts time to allow him to raise a case for something which has never been denied!

But it seems I have to see it through and then he'll disappear again as Mediation or supervised contact would not give him what he wants.

He has also applied to have a non-harrassment order against him for abusive text messages (which I am 100% guilty of!), but obviously so is he. However, I have not saved any of his nasty messages and it looks as though he has mine.

I feel so sad that what should have been a happy time in my life, that this man has sought to make everything as unpleasant and confrontational for me as possible. And that further, he has no desire to arrange contact in a way that would be nice for my Daughter and that he will probably push for a contact centre than somewhere she knows.

Hi again.

Are you in Scotland? If so, the DirectGov link I posted won't be relevant, but there will be similar information on the Scottish Legal Aid Board website.

It sounds like you're getting good advice from your solicitor. Best of luck!

I am in Scotland, yes. I think that similar cases in England and Wales are refused Legal Aid unless Mediation has failed. But here, it has to be suggested by the Sheriff, once they have read the complaint.

I've just ordered a Yoga DVD for stress relief and managed half a bacon roll today! Hoping the DVD can calm me down.... Thanks again for all your responses.