Does ex-h have to take me back to court?

[UselessArticle]

I have a court order issued 18 months ago restricting my ex-h's access to our children to indirect access only. He can write to them once a month (he never has). The order was given due to his poor mental health and erratic behaviour.

He's recently had his solicitor write to me with paperwork from his MH workers saying he is better now and asking me to go to mediation to discuss/arrange child access. I ignored that. Now I've received a letter from the Mediation service asking me the same thing.

If he wants to see the children, does he have to take me back to court to get the current order revoked? The children don't want to see him and since the court order he's been banned from keeping animals for 5 years due to abandoning 3 dogs at his house (which got repossessed), got a 2 year suspended sentence for carrying a knife and threatening behaviour and been given 2 restraining orders for harassing members of mine and his own family.

As far as I know no none can be forced to mediation so yes he needs a court order. Although it will not look very co-operative if you don't try i t.
Perhaps write back setting out a few numbered paragraphs of all those things you mention above and say you have no groudns to believe things have changed so believe mediation would be pointless but if he would like to start writing letters to the children as permitted under the order that would be a good first step and the children will look forward receiving them but do not want to see him at this stage.

Thanks for the reply. I can't consider mediation at all due to his harassment and record of violence and I don't want to open an invitation to him or enter into correspondence even via a third party. He's scary!

As long as he needs to take me back to court, I'm happy with that. Once there I can explain my reasons.

The mediator will be able to tell the court that your case isn't suitable for mediation, so yes, he will need to return the matter to court.