Grandparent CAO advice

[GrandparentIssues]

@prh47bridge and @Collaborate you have given great advice on previous threads about this, can I please ask for your advice too?

If a grandparent has been to mediation and is applying to the court for permission to apply for a CAO, can the parents ask the court not to grant permission or will it automatically be granted if the grandparent has previously had contact with the grandchild?

What grounds might be considered for the courts not to grant permission eg if the parents apply for a non molestation order against the grandparent before the grandparent applies to court or the need for a-psychiatric assessment?

[prh47bridge]

Yes, you can oppose the application for permission to apply. In deciding, the court will consider the order for which the grandparents are applying, their connection with the child and any risk that allowing the application to proceed may cause harm to the child.

Even if the grandparents are given leave to apply for a CAO, that doesn't mean they will get one.

[Whiskeypowers]

My children’s paternal grandparents applied for permission after I refused mediation following my solicitors advice.
the Family Court did not give them leave to subsequently apply to court for a CAO.
They had had previous contact with my children. That did not change the outcome. The Court was crystal clear that the only things they were concerned with was what was in the children’s best interest

[GrandparentIssues]

Thanks, both of you.

Did they not get leave because you refused mediation so they couldn’t get a mediation certificate, @Whiskeypowers? Or did you contest the application? I appreciate you might not want to post details on here but it would be helpful to know what kind of grounds might mean that the court wouldn’t grant leave to apply for a CAO.

There were grounds to refuse mediation but, perhaps naively, it seemed better to agree.

[prh47bridge]

Refusing mediation will not prevent grandparents getting leave. The certificate is to say they have attended a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting. They don't actually have to undertake mediation.

[Whiskeypowers]

I refused mediation since they didn’t accept the findings and outcome of their son’s application to court. I knew when I was advised to refused mediation what was coming which was the subsequent application for leave complete with their signed MIAM certificate. Given what they were writing and saying about me it seemed it was a means to end for them as @prh47bridge writes all they needed was a certificate to say they’d attended that information meeting and get that box ticked off.
@GrandparentIssues I thought it only relevant to share my experience since the fact they had previously had contact didn’t positively influence the application to the extent that leave was granted by the Court.

[GrandparentIssues]

@prh47bridge can I ask you a technical legal question by PM? I understand you can’t give legal advice but this is a general legal question ie how to apply for something but it wouldn’t make much sense without some very outing and personal background?

[prh47bridge]

Feel free.

[GrandparentIssues]

Thank you! I have PMed you.