Is there anyone here who does family law? Need some advice...

[Aufish]

Basically not getting the service that I am paying for from my solicitors and so having to see what to do next. I have been in a access case for my dc for the last 18 months and it doesn't seem to be moving on from this time last year when direct contact began at a contact centre. It was agreed with the help of CAFCASS that my ex husband was to have supervised contact once a month from the 8th April last year which we all agreed to. Basically he only turned up for 3 out of 6 contacts and it was excuse after excuse. In December we went back to court and it was agreed that he would have contact every 8 weeks and that he had to give notice of the fact he was coming one week in advance via the CAFCASS office. He had one in February which went well and so was due another visit this Saturday, but he didn't give the required notice which is attached to the contact order. This now means that the children will not see him until June. We are due to go back on the 18th June for our final hearing, but surely if things are still going bad with it all and he is not adhere-ing (sp) to the contact order then further contact isn't going to be granted. I just don't know what is going to happen next and my silly solicitors are not giving any advice or even saying one thing or the other. Have also requested a copy of all the paperwork from the case as we have moved and have lost alot of it and I need to see if they wrote us a letter telling us how much this case was going to cost as I'm sure it was only a phone call saying how much to pay her. Sorry for the rambling, so much going on in my mind at the moment with all of this and I just want some honest advice.

Bump, is there anyone that can help?

Your solicitor should have given you detailed information about costs (this is required by the law society) and you should have probably had a client agreement setting out their charging terms and conditions etc.

Your solicitor should keep you informed of the progress of your case! Sounds like communication could be better. Have you thought about writing them a letter setting out what you would like to know (numbered points should help) and explaining you are not happy with communication thus far?

There should have been an initial letter about costs. Also ask them to bill you every month so you know where you stand and ask for a bill now perhaps.

I think the courts are loathe to stop all contact with a parent. Imagine if they stopped you having any contact even supervised with your child! It's a very radical thing to order even if someone is not bothering to turn up I'm afraid so it's probably in the child's better interests to see the father 50% of the time on these rare visits rather than more of the time. Why is it supervised? Is he a risk to the child?

Oh dear! sorry to hear you are having problems.

your solcitor should have given you an initial latter explaining clearly costs, their estimate of ehat this is going to cost and who to contact if you have a complaint.

follow the complaints procedure and if you're still not happy consider changing.

If you're paying privately, your solictor should have told you the minute his/her costs exceeded the original costs estimate you were given. If not you have a case for not paying.

As for contact, dad does sound a numpty but the courts will usually only make an order that there be no contact if the children are more affected by being let down continually than by nort seeing him at all. If he can't be bothered to stick to what has been agreed pending teh fianl hearing he will not get much sympathy.

do have it out with your solicitor as you need to have confidence in them for your own sanity. Good luck

sorry about typos!

Hi, thanks for the advice, now I knew about the letter that she is supposed to send to us but I don't ever recall receiving one and neither does my dp as we discuss everything about this case and I show him all the letters that we receive. The reason he has to have supervised visits is because when he had overnight stays he completely neglected them and the courts agreed that he was a significant risk to the children. He also is seen a significant risk of hurting me and also snatching the children as he still has the childrens passports and has an American green card and has the means to get to America. When he takes them out of the contact centre he also has to be with a CAFCASS officer and has to be back at the centre at a set time otherwise the police are called. It is all a terrible mess as far as everyone is concerned and he shouldn't even be able to have contact but for some stupid reason the courts have carried it on even though he continually breaks the contact orders. If he could do at least one of the things on the contact order or visited at least 50% of the time, I don't think that I would mind as much about paying out all the money that we have done at this time, but he doesn't seem to be that bothered. Yet again he hasn't turned up to another prearranged contact session and has made excuse after excuse as to why he couldn't make a phone call to CAFCASS to say he was turning up which is specified in the contact order. The next time he is now due to see the children isn't until June and that will be 16 weeks since they last saw him. On the costs situation, when we came into some money about 16 months ago, I called my solicitor as I wanted to find out a ball park figure for costs of this case and she quoted me as £2500 which we paid in full and said that would be plenty for this case, there was no receipt sent or any letter informing of any incurring costs until last week when I received an invoice for a further £1900 which I am refusing to pay until I get a copy of all the letters they have sent to me in the last 2 years so then it is covered and so there should be a letter in there about costs. What do I do if there isn't a letter in there informing me of costs?

Also need to add that when we left the area it was agreed that we would split the contact down the middle with the holidays and that we would transport them to him without any cost to him. This was done on the first holidays after the summer holidays and it was at that point that he neglected them. (Wasn't pleasant) after that it was decided that overnight stays would stop due to neglect and we heard nothing from him for nearly a year, it seems as if he forgot that he had children at this point and even the judge asked him why he didn't pursue it further and his answer was "I didn't want to upset them" so the fact that he has only had 5 visits in a year doesn't upset them now and that their hopes all get built up and then dashed at the last minute doesn't upset them. I just wish that he would get his act together and either be a father to them or just bugger off. We have no problem seeing the children just as long as they are looked after and their needs are met at every stage.

He sounds like a lot of men. I don't know why my youngest don't seem to mind their father's lack of interest. I suppose they've never known anything different so it doesn't bother them at all, just bothers me.

Yes, the costs letter should be with the correspondence they sent you. If they said £2,500 was enough and now want £1900 did they say why? Had it got a lot more complicated? The latest bill should have on it a procedure to challenge it I think and a time period to do that in., You really need to see the letters though as if they wrote to you saying you have asaked us to do this extra work not known at the start and it is going to cost another £1900 and then they did that work and bill you for that then it's clear you have to pay. If they said £2500 will cover it all we will do no more work abouve £2500 without your permission then that's very different so it will all come down to what was said in letters really.

At the berginning of any case it is difficult to know exactly how much the costs will be which is why solicitors give estimates. Here they thought it was £2500. As the case developed it would have been obvious to them that the costs were going to exceed that estimate and they should have told you as soon as it became obvious to them. I would not pay more than £2500 unless you were clearly told that the costs estimate had changed.

in writing (blodoy lawyers)