Contested hearing

[Pebbledashery]

Hi all.. I have a contested fact finding hearing coming up... Is there any tips anyone can give me who have been through the same.. Specifically domestic abuse situations.
My ex is going to take an oath on the bible and he's going to look at the Judge and lie... This what I'm not going to be able to deal with.

But you have swathes of police reports, his previous convictions, medical reports, CAFCASS, Maracs, non-molestation orders on your side.

He's only got him, right?

Yes that's correct, but I've now been limited to supplying 3 allegations on the Scott Schedule and a 6 page statement :( how do you document so much abuse and it's escalation in 6 pages.

You pick examples to show specific behaviors and types of abuse that have an effect on your child. I.e. abuse of your child or abuse of you that your child has witnessed. Describe how it affected your child and if there is evidence like medical records or police reports etc that strengthen your case use those examples as they are more provable. Have you looked into mackenzies friends? I'm not sure what services they can provide with covid and zoom hearings but might be worth reaching out as they help women who have suffered dv and are going through custody hearings with the perpetrator.

You also remind the Judge of this case

www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2021/4.html

The Court of Appeal is considering the whole issue of DV and contact, judgement not yet delivered. The whole future of Scott Schedules and the practice of limiting allegations is under review

www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2021/4.html

Seeing as I know nothing, can part of your six page allowance be precis’d as “see police report a454”, “see sw report 45cZ” for a few lines and then expand as advised above?

Sorry, posted the link twice!

It's a cracking judgement, though. Well worth reading more than once.

Thank you. I think my statement just needs to be completely on point. I can evidence pretty much everything I'm alleging.. And that's not even with just texts and emails, police reports, social services reports and midwife and health visitor reports.. I'm just concerned about the cross examination also.

Good luck Pebbledashery!

I hope this is the beginning of ending the control your abuser has on your life!

When my Barrister talked to me the morning of the Fact Finding she asked me really quick questions and I felt myself stuttering/slightly flummoxed as I couldn't think quickly enough (although maybe that's just me being a slow poke!)

Maybe your Barrister could give you an idea about what kind of questions might come up in the cross examination so you aren't kind of flummoxed/thinking on your feet.

I felt flummoxed because I felt under pressure to answer quickly and my recall felt out of kilter with the speed of her questions. Being prepared might help offset that.

Thanks for the advice. I'm bricking it really. Been told today another Marac referral has been made for us we were above the threshold.. Makes me worried that we're still at high risk.

The other thing I did was to go through police disclosures and compare them to what was told to Social Services etc at an earlier point. There were lots of really glaring and obvious discrepancies that got significantly worse as things started to go against her.

Maybe have a look for any potential discrepancies that might be exploited by your ex in the court bundle?

Could you let the police know you are scared so they can put a system in place for you? Camera above your door etc? Or you could buy a doorbell camera from Amazon.