Ex's Solicitor doesn't want a final hearing- Why?

[coffeeismybestie]

My dp's ex's solicitor doesn't want a final hearing, they made the comment to the judge and was trying to convince my dp that it would be better not to have one. Solicitor said that their client was willing to work on an agreement out of court.
Dp knows this is untrue, due to the ex still trying not to agree contact dates and has requested a section 7 report.

Can someone please explain why does the solicitor not want a final hearing? And what ground could this be allowed.
Dp is representing himself.

Final hearings are meant to be the last resort. They are expensive (if you are represented) and certainly can be stressful and increase acrimony between the parties. From the courts point of view they always want to encourage discussion and engagement between the parties with a view to reaching an agreement or at least narrowing the issues which the court will need to decide.

It is therefore very standard for a solicitor/barrister to say to the court they hope a final hearing can be avoided. It’s basically trying to show willing that communication will happen, attempts will be made to try. It is a very bland statement really coming from a lawyer. I have no way of knowing how much effort they will be put in to trying to resolve the issues but it certainly isn’t anything untoward or indicative that there is something up. Obviously it will take both of you to reach an agreement that would avoid a final hearing and maybe it’s a possibility and maybe there is some fundamental disagreement which means it isn’t.

The thing to remember about final hearings is that the court could order what you want, what your ex wants or something in between that may be what neither of you really want but have to live with. For that reason it is always worth putting what you want to the other party and thinking about where there may be compromise and where you really feel you can’t. From the courts point of view agreements that the parties make between themselves often work out better as the parties have retained that control. Not always possible but worth considering.

*What your dp wants / what their ex wants.

Thanks you for the reply. This is the second time they have attended court and the solicitor just keep repeating no final hearing should happen when they spoke before they saw the judge. No discussion about actual contact happened. To be honest I did think it was amount money.

This issue is dp just wants contact and for it to be regular, he requested for his ex to start communicating with him about future contact but she will not unless it's indirect. At court she still would not agree to eow Sunday until the judge told her too. She says that she can't agree because they may have plans.

Dp wants and need a strict pattern of contact for now, at least til his ex has followed the order and not prevented contact. He agrees a strict order will not work forever, and isn't best for the dc but at the moment the dc gets upset when he's told he will see dp on a date and it is stop.
Dp would rather a judge decide he should have one day eow week than agree to more with the ex and it stop in 2 months.

Final hearings in which a judge makes a decision are not as common as you may think. The ideal for most cases is that the barristers/solicitors try and reach and agreement that the judge then signs off for.

Its not just money - the system could not cope with every single case having to go to a final hearing with a judge just for EOW and one day a week to be avoided. They should be for the contentious cases. It is a waste of court time and money - can you imagine what would happen if every single case required a hearing.

So on any given day the judge will have a few direction hearings where he signs off on a contact order and one that he has to make the decision. Most solictors dont want to have to spend too much time either then they have plenty of cases.

So if the ex did agree to a sensible plan of contact why wouldnt your DP sign off on it?

Of course he would. Just to be clear this is the first time he has heard of a final hearing being mentioned. He's done research but it can get confusing and her solicitor is extremely hostile. Well the one he emails is, the representative at court is different and seem to try to communicate a little more.
It took 6 weeks for his ex to comfirm a date for contact to restart. So a lot of delays.

She will not come to an agreement, that is the issue. She has concerns about everything, and I believe that she hopes her concerns will cause him to just agree to what she wants which is indirect contact. Previously he had EOW, but she stop it.

Her recent claim is that dp over feed dc which made him sick ( dc is 5) and at the next contact dp didn't feed him. She wants a walk through of our home and for limited contact if any with our own dc.

As I said if they can come to an agreement that would be good and hopefully when the section 7 report is done she will realise she should stop preventing contact.

At court there would be a barrister not a Solicitor.

It sounds here as if sadly a final gearing is inevitable but they do try and avoid them!

If your DP and his ex can come to an agreement then it should be put into a consent order for the court to approve (this is just a paper exercise - they would both sign it with their legal reps and it would be posted to the court for the judge to approve). A consent order is every bit as binding as an order imposed by a Judge at a final hearing.

The ex sounds like she has issues letting go when it comes to the DC. Hopefully the section 7 report will help and the recommendations made assist her in coming to a sensible agreement. If she remains hostile and undermining the relationship between your partner and DC she may well find a Judge at final hearing makes an order she doesn’t like.

She needs to accept that time with your DP is in DC’a best interests and needs to be prioritised - i.e. regular and on set days. It isn’t about when suits her it’s a priority. If it all works well and trust/confidence develops then more flexibility may be possible in future. I think your DP should consider sensible boundaries for communicating with her about DC - email or text probably better than phone. He does not have to give her every single detail of what they do but in the first instance a contact notebook might help with basics like what child has had food wise/any pertinent info on health/important issues so information can be shared - she would be sharing information too to keep your DP up to speed. This sort of book isn’t for everyone but in some cases can work well.

Obviously it’s hard to know if she is an anxious/over protective mum which can be worked on or if she just doesn’t want to support the relationship and is hostile (harder to overcome).

Not relevant really but solicitors can and do represent people at court as well as barristers!

@DinoMamasaurus @Quartz2208 just wanted to say thank you for your help. It's not easy for dp representing himself.
Hopefully the report helps, I believe it will and think in time she may relax and put some trust in dp's parenting skills. Is partly his fault that he allowed her to dictate his contact for so long but he wanted to avoid added tension because she doesn't do well with not being in control.