Contact Order

[PrincessJenny]

My EH has dragged me and our DC through the courts to get a contact order so that he can see them and currently he has them 1 in every 2 weekends, however he keeps cancelling their visits and rearranging them at the last minute (ie on a Friday afternoon) as he says that he and he new wife have things come up like their new baby being ill or having to look after his MIL as she is unwell. Can he be seen to be in breach of the contact order or will I be blamed if I stop our DC going as they are being messed around so much?

Well those examples you have given seem like genuine reasons to me!

No, you can't stop contact.

Make a list of how many/often he cancels, mayb over a 6 month period. If its excessive then yeah hes broken the order.

Mayb first u could hav a word with him n explain that he always seems to b cancelling n mucking kids about.

There are genuine reasons (eg have to work late/shifts, ill in hospital) and there are other reasons (I have to care for someone else and this means I can't see my children). IMO his reasons are rather weak.

You should keep records of the times he's done this. If it persists you should consider asking him to vary the arrangements. How old are your children?

Its happened the last 2 times and our DC are 4 and 9, but he's only been able to have them at his home since January, prior to that he was dragging us all through the courts to have full access and he only saw our DC in supervised contact.
If he breaks the order can I take action against him even though he took the order out?

No, there is no action to take - you can't enforce he sees them.

How about you suggest to him that he confirms his availablity for contact 48 hours before it's due to take place?

Unfortunately you can't force him to have them. Agree as above, keep a diary of when this happens which you can refer to at future hearings.

Supervised contact is a part of nearly all court ordered arrangements when there is a dispute between parents, not sure what point your making there.

You say the last minute changes have happened twice since Jan. that's 5months doesn't seem bad to me, are you looking for an excuse to prevent contact again?

A couple of quations:

You say that he has dragged you and your DC through court - in what capacity has he dragged your DC through the courts?

As for dragging you through the courts - did you offer him parenting time before going to court which he refused?

He didnt actually take the order out - he made an application, the Judge made the order.

What action would you like exacted upon the father of your children?

Akermanis - whats your basis for your statement re supervised contact/nearly all courts orders etc?

I agree that supervised contact is often insisted upon in inappropriate cases, and should be and is the exception rather than the rule. For OP's situation there is no need for supervision.

I reiterate that if he is regularly not taking up contact that is ordered it might be better to renegotiate contact to make it less frequent (and therefore more manageable) or to take it back to court. But OP if you do this, be realistic. You can't convey enough in these threads to get proper advice (and as we're all anonymous anyway why would you trust us to give good advice) so I'd suggest you take legal advice to ensure that you're not over reacting.