Advice please re court contact order and employment.

[Runnerlegs]

So, after x years unemployed, I have retrained and have been offered a job in a school. My exp keeps taking me to court about DS (he has supervised contact). What are the implications now that I can't be readily available for court dates? I can only attend in school holidays. What are my rights to earn a living to provide for my family? Should my new job be jeapodised by having to take time off in term time? What will court opinion be? All advice welcome.

Every case is different and no one can second guess what a judge's opinion will be, although someone with knowledge of the relevant facts and the law should be able to advise about probabilities.

If the other parent won't agree to changing the arrangement you can apply to court for a variation to the order rather than acting unilaterally and make reasonable alternative proposals. For example supervised contact at weekends and during the school holidays and/or supervised by a family member, friend or contact centre staff. Depending on the reason contact is supervised it may be deemed possible for the other parent to now have unsupervised contact.

you should be able to get the court dates fitted into school holidays, usually the next appearance is agreed between the parties when you are both in court. Taking time off to go to court should not affect your new job. Your ex cannot keep taking you back to court indefinitely, either he will be classified as a vexatious litigant- i think that's the term. The judge will say when they feel the case is done with and recommend the next appearance is the last.

Having said that supervised contact is usually finite- unless your ex has issues that are unresolvable, therefore he will almost certainly move at some point onto unsupervised contact and from there possibly to staying contact. So looks like you have quite a few more court appearances to come. Judges are usually sympathetic to work commitments and you do get very regular holidays working in a school.

Thank you! The reality is that we will be back to court a lot of times, this has already gone on for almost 6 years. I am just fed up with it dictating my life and preventing me from earning a living. Time to regain a little control I think. I just didn't want to be in trouble with the courts

I've never in 20 years come across a teacher unable to come to court during term time. That's what supply teachers are for!
That said, judges will be flexible and try and fit around holiday times, though they won't if it will cause too much delay. Depends on what the issues are. If father is having no contact you won't be able to delay by 6 weeks until the next half term. If he just wants an extra couple of hours on the end of a weekend then it would be fine to wait.

As other posters have said, it very much depends on the view of the Judge. The Judge in our case will not adjourn. If it is a directions appointment, he urges all parties to be present at the next hearing.

As for matters running on indefinitely; ours has run for seven years. Judges are loathe to make section 91 (14) orders as they are seen as draconian and generally appealable. However, the Judge on this occasion made it very clear to the father of my GS1 that he did not want to see the matter back in his court again. Given past behaviour, I feel that is unlikely however.

We have all had to make ourselves available for court and in my husband's case we have been very lucky that he has had a sympathetic employer. It is always best to get matters resolved as soon as possible. I know it is difficult employment wise, but having court hanging over you is a whole lot worse.