After some advice for my niece, she has given me permission to ask. Sorry it’s long, hopefully included all relevant info.
DN (26) has two children:
DD1 (4) whose father has 50/50 care, no issues on either side.
DD2 (5mo) who’s father has never met her due to DV. At the time of birth even if DN wanted to give access SS had said not to.
The father has since made an application to the court for access and to change the babies surname to his, and made allegations back now of DV from her towards him. He has also admitted to heavy recreational drug use.
He sent £100 a month or so after the birth and nothing else. My niece is still on maternity leave and cannot afford a solicitor.
There has been one hearing so far and all the usual agencies are involved. Before this hearing the father missed three cafcass calls. The next step went ahead as planned and at that stage he then decided he did want to have his say, and that was allowed.
The reports from the agencies are all recommending at this stage that photos and email updates via his solicitor are sufficient and no contact is allowed.
At the end of this hearing an order was issued giving him 2 weeks to submit his statement, followed by her having 2 weeks and then back to him for 2 weeks before the next hearing. These were specific dates with 4pm deadlines A fact finding may then be ordered for later in the year.
The deadline for his statement was last Monday and nothing has come through yet. She chased his solicitor last week who said they could be late by a few days if they needed to be, but that it wouldn’t change her deadline. DN agreed that if it arrived by Friday at 4pm she would make it work to turnaround in a week, but it hasn’t arrived as of posting.
She has emailed the court over the weekend to say it hasn’t been done. According to his solicitor they only took instruction from him on Thursday afternoon and they need to type it up and then get it approved by him.
Does anyone have experience of representing themselves in this situation? We’ve read about various requests solicitors can make to have the application struck out or his evidence dismissed and hers accepted so no fact finding needed. But can she do this without antagonising the judge?
It seems very unfair that he was allowed to put his evidence in following three missed opportunities and also only after seeing what she had written. We don’t want another situation where he gets full disclosure (and 5 weeks to her 1) and she’s going in blind. She is already disadvantaged by not having a solicitor.
Now the court is aware he has missed the deadline by at least a week, should we just hold on for them to do their thing or should we be proactive?
Any advice for this ongoing situation is welcome, I imagine this is not going to be the only hurdle she encounters along the way.