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Hi All,
We have a Residency application hearing in court on Tuesday 18th Sept, this will be the 4th hearing concerning my Partners 9 year old son, the others being an application for a PSO, an appeal by his ex to have this overturned (she failed!) and a hearing for Parental Responsibility being granted to my Partner and a Contact Order being sorted.
We have had a different Solicitor for all 3 previous hearings (same Firm), we asked that the Solicitor that was actually dealing with the case, a Partner in the Firm who we have met on several occasions and have a raport with to represent us at the hearing on the 18th as she is familiar with all the details (its complicated to say the least!). She informed us by phone on Monday that she will be in Chambers that day and will not be able to attend, however she has assigned us her "top man" to represent us on the day. This morning we have had a letter stating that this "top man" will be charging us over double the amount our Solicitor would have charged us. My query is ... can a Solicitor appoint a replacement which will cost over £770+VAT rather than the £350ish+VAT we were expecting because SHE can't attend court? I could understand it if we were the ones saying we didn't want her to represent us etc, but this is out of our control and we were not informed on Monday that the replacement Solicitor would be much more expensive.
Also does anyone know what the penalties for breaking a Parental Responsibility order are, his ex has broken the PR on 2 seperate occasions recently and our Solicitor told us that the Courts take a very dim view of this as it is a Sealed Order.
One last query (promise) ... This is the first hearing for Residency, we are expecting it to drag on for many months as his ex is not going to give up over £400 a month in benefits she receives for *L* easily, however during the same phone call as mentioned above, when we informed the Solicitor of the breaks of the PR and that she had been leaving *L* alone in the house while she went shopping, the Solicitor said "Make sure you tell the Barrister and CAFCASS about these incidents ... you may not even get into court", my Partner didn't register at that time what she had said, but we are now wondering if a judgement could be made on Tuesday and we could be given Residency there and then without it even getting to the "messy" stage of accusations and evidence etc. Could a Judge actually decide that Residency be granted as soon as Tuesday? (Maybe we're just clutching at straws and it's wishful thinking I know ... but *L* is going through so much at the hands of his Mum & Stepdad, we just want him with us)
Thanks
We have a Residency application hearing in court on Tuesday 18th Sept, this will be the 4th hearing concerning my Partners 9 year old son, the others being an application for a PSO, an appeal by his ex to have this overturned (she failed!) and a hearing for Parental Responsibility being granted to my Partner and a Contact Order being sorted.
We have had a different Solicitor for all 3 previous hearings (same Firm), we asked that the Solicitor that was actually dealing with the case, a Partner in the Firm who we have met on several occasions and have a raport with to represent us at the hearing on the 18th as she is familiar with all the details (its complicated to say the least!). She informed us by phone on Monday that she will be in Chambers that day and will not be able to attend, however she has assigned us her "top man" to represent us on the day. This morning we have had a letter stating that this "top man" will be charging us over double the amount our Solicitor would have charged us. My query is ... can a Solicitor appoint a replacement which will cost over £770+VAT rather than the £350ish+VAT we were expecting because SHE can't attend court? I could understand it if we were the ones saying we didn't want her to represent us etc, but this is out of our control and we were not informed on Monday that the replacement Solicitor would be much more expensive.
Also does anyone know what the penalties for breaking a Parental Responsibility order are, his ex has broken the PR on 2 seperate occasions recently and our Solicitor told us that the Courts take a very dim view of this as it is a Sealed Order.
One last query (promise) ... This is the first hearing for Residency, we are expecting it to drag on for many months as his ex is not going to give up over £400 a month in benefits she receives for *L* easily, however during the same phone call as mentioned above, when we informed the Solicitor of the breaks of the PR and that she had been leaving *L* alone in the house while she went shopping, the Solicitor said "Make sure you tell the Barrister and CAFCASS about these incidents ... you may not even get into court", my Partner didn't register at that time what she had said, but we are now wondering if a judgement could be made on Tuesday and we could be given Residency there and then without it even getting to the "messy" stage of accusations and evidence etc. Could a Judge actually decide that Residency be granted as soon as Tuesday? (Maybe we're just clutching at straws and it's wishful thinking I know ... but *L* is going through so much at the hands of his Mum & Stepdad, we just want him with us)
Thanks
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