following a court order

[mrsdarcey78]

Hi I have posted on here a few times, regarding being taken to court for contact, ex hadn't seen the children for over 2 years they are 18 15 and 9. After a awful three months he ended up with indirect contact with youngest child, sending cards three times a year.
It was also stated in the order that I could if I wish send the children to a counsellor at my own discretion.
Today I have got a copy of the order, saying "under the slip rule" the order had been amended to state, that the court will order the counselling to a new provider, and the bit where it says "mother will apply for counselling for children at her own discretion if necessary" has been crossed out.
I would not have agreed to that on the actual court date. The children do not want counselling and are a lot more happy and settled since being out of the DV for over two years and the court being over. Especially with their ages, its a harder thing to enforce if they do not want to speak to someone, they may chose to go, which is why i was okay with it saying at the mothers discretion etc.
Would the court enforce this part of the order, and if the children refused to go or were unhappy about it where would I stand?.
I had felt happy and settled for the first time in months, and happy the court had been sorted out now I got this today.
Going to court cost me every penny, and I can not afford anymore legal fees.
Has anyone had court ordered counselling enforced on the kids? Thanks for any advice.

Write to the court asking what caused this amendment and saying it isn't at all what you recall happened.

I don't see how a court can order counselling at all.

That sounds very odd. The slip rule is there to enable the court to correct minor errors; changing the order to the opposite of what it said before isn't minor. I agree that I don't see how the court can order counselling - indeed, I don't think it can make any orders concerning the 18 year old, and it would be ludicrous to expect you to strong-arm the other two to go to counsellors if they don't want to go.

Thank you I agree, Ive looked up the slip rule and its for minor errors. I will say thanks but they dont want to go if anything comes. I did not ask for counselling for them and they do not want it. I thought the contact order was just to state the contact on it. I was highly upset on the day having to face him again and just didnt want to be there and wanted to go home. I havent read or seen anywhere even online about anyone else whos had all of this added to a court order. The 15 year old will be 16 in october so she will be taken off it, and when the 9 year old is older will consider asking them to go to no contact maybe. for now I hope its over with and we can recover and get on with our lives x

I think you do need to query the order as MrsBertBibby suggests; if you just say they don't want to go you run the risk of your ex taking you back to court for breaking the order.

I agree you need to challenge this apparently wrong attempt to change the order under the slip rule, which is intended for things such as date errors, or spelling mistakes.

If the other party alleged the order made was actually different to the first one that came out you should have been informed and given the opportunity to make comment before the judge looked at their notes. Seems to me as if a member of court staff might have got over-zealous and exceeded their authority.

It says at your discretion - this means it's up to you to decide - not that it's compulsory.

I'm not surprised the judge thinks you children may need counselling given your court battle plus you mentioned DV

Quite likely - read the OP. She wanted what you put. That's the bit that's been changed.

You can't order counselling. The client has to wish to take part. This is a nonsense!