Cross Examination at Final Hearing

[bespawler]

For background: My ex was emotionally and physically abusive towards and this was almost always witnessed by our LO, which my ex obviously denies. He has also neglected our LO and denies that too. He has been having interim contact supervised by me.

The Final Hearing is scheduled for a few weeks time and I'm panicking about what kind of questions his solicitor will ask me. I'm self-representing so I'm worried about them trying to trip me up or unsettle me. Does anyone have any experiences?

Do you have to self rep ? Can you not get legal aid ?

What does the s7 report recommend?

No I can't get legal aid because I didn't report it to the police at the time, I reported it afterwards. The recommendations are a few weeks of supervised contact before gradually moving onto unsupervised. I want him to do a domestic violence programme alongside the supervised contact but he obviously doesn't want to.

I spent 4 hours on the stand - I won't lie its horrific - but what got me through it was knowing I was telling the truth, that I needed to do it to protect my dc. Your inner lioness will see you through.
And after a 4 year case I won. Exh didnt get any access at all to my dc and some of what he wanted with our shared dc.
Willing you on op - you will do it too.

No final hearing experience yet, but I’m due to do this soon too. I’m sure it won’t be a great experience but it has to be done. Yes, of course they will be trying to trip us up but you can only do the best you can...