Ex H Recording our Conversations to use in court - advice

[whygodwhy]

I have separated from DH - Legal Separation Document signed and only issue DH is unhappy about is access - he wants to have DS one night a week and every other weekend Fri to Sun - DS does not want to do two night stays he is 6 - his Dad whilst living in the house was not a very "present" parent and also extremely EA & VA which DS sadly saw far too much of - so is intimidated by him and not keen to be away from me too much yet.

I have suggesed DH has DS overnight one night a week and one week has him overnight on a FRiday bringing back Sat morn and the next weekend has DS from Sat morn to Sun teatime - and we go with this until DS is happy to do two night stays - LEgal agreement says Dad to have reasonable access to be progressive at childs pace.

DH is saying DS needs to be told what to do and to forced to get over any worries DS might have - I have said we need to take this at Childs pace - I have heard from good friend that DH is recording all our conversatoins, albeit god knows why as all I say is that I want the best for DS and his realtionship with DH to go from strength to strength - He says he will win in court and DS's feelings will not be listened too and the court will see that I am being controlling - I feel that I am going out of my way to make the best of this bad situation - two questions will the court listen to tapes he may have made - he may be very clever and cut and paste different conversations together to show me in a different light - second question - will the court support my DS's wishes - to see his Dad but he says he only wants one night stays until he is older

DH also says he wants to take DS away on holiday this year to which DS flatly refused - have explained to DH that only he can build up DS's trust in him and that will take time.

I'm not sure that recordings made without your consent are admissible, whether or not your ex edits them.

Recordings made while physically presence are allowed. Recordings made on a phone without permission are not allowed - not legally allowed to be used by anyone other than the person making the recording for personal use.

However, mostly courts are not likely to be interested, unless there was something really radically important.

On DS's wishes, I'm afraid they are not likely to listen to DS. That's normally 10+. Will the court listen to you or your ex-DH ? Can't say.
Probably they will agree to take it slower, but equally courts to have the view, that sometimes kids need to be forced. So he may not get his way immediately, however at some point (before your preferred timeline) he is likely to get weekend. But let me emphasise each case is different.

You could always make your own recordings, and submit them for the record, to show some editing had taken place. If it were then necessary to prove whose tapes were edited, it would be quite easy to prove, technically.

It's rather a faff for you, but maybe your mp3 player or mobile phone will record, so you don't need to buy a new one? If not, maybe you could borrow one from DS's school (make a returnable deposit so they feel confident it will return?)?

That neutralises that question, but I'm afraid I can't make any helpful comments on the legal side of things. Good luck anyway. Well done for trying to stand up for your DC.