How much effort does applying to court involve?

[HopHopHoppitySplash]

My ex is saying he is going to take me to court to get unsupervised contact and that I better get used to not knowing where she is or when she'll be back.
So far contact has been supervised, sporadic until recently, now once a week for 1-2 hours. I've offered as much as he wants but he says he's seeing her enough, refuses to more and says that he only wants her alone. He laughs at DD if she hurts herself or cries, has shaken her 3 separate times when younger, the 3rd time saying "yeah it makes them retarded doesn't it" when I stopped him, and generally puts her at risk of/hurts her in ways that are so obviously not how you act with a baby that it must be deliberate. (eg sitting her on the edge of high up surfaces and letting go when she's just learning to sit, lying her ontop of a hard plastic toy and saying you better learn to crawl when she started screaming, repeatedly not supporting her sitting up despite her falling and hitting her head on toys each time, bringing and giving her things with ink/sharp/small chokeable parts to chew repeatedly, pulling a clip in toy towards her face (just told him it flicks up when pulled) and hitting her in the face with it then saying stop being a wimp, lying her on her back when choking, telling her to shut up and show some respect when crying, so on.

How much effort would going to court involve for him? I can see him bothering if it's just a couple of hours here and there, but not otherwise. Also I think he'd have to self represent cost wise as he's usually in debt, so how much time does that take, or does it not take any preparation?

Oh good grief. What a jerk.

He will have to file an application and pay a fee initially (cost £240 iirc), then go to court for a directions hearing when I would expect the court to order a Cafcass report and for both of you to file statements.

Cafcass will take a good 3 months to file their report and if they agree with you will recommend that supervised contact only continues for a while. Then go back to court after maybe 6 months, when the contact centre will file their evidence about how he behaves with your dd in the sessions, you can both file updated evidence, and if he is still hellbent on getting supervised contact, the court is likely to order a Re L, or fact finding hearing regarding your allegations (depending on the court, this may happen at the earlier stage).

If the fact finding hearing is satisfied that your allegations are upheld then he is unlikely to get unsupervised contact any time soon. If however there is no independent evidence then he may.

The short answer to your question, therefore, is a full blown contact dispute will take between one to two years to complete. Cost depends entirely on whether either or both of you get solicitors, but there may also be costs involved in paying independent witnesses (eg doctors, psychologists) etc to file reports.

does he do these things during supervised contact, or was it earlier, before it was supervised?

if it is during supervised, then STOP the contact.

how do/ did you know this was happening?

if it is happening currently, it sounds as though the supervisor does not have a clue. Is it a professional, or a family member?

if it is happening currently there should be no contact until he has completed an assessed parenting course, and even then it should be supervised after he has done it.

also it sounds like a case where a psychological assessment would be necessary.

your DD could come to serious harm if this continues.