Speaking as one who is having enormous difficulties managing my own caseload I was interested to learn yesterday of a novel approach being adopted in the Stoke area to managing the deluge of cases in which domestic violence allegations are made and which would ordinarily be listed for a fact finding hearing. The pressure on the courts is such that Cafcass Officers are apparently being instructed to express an opinion on allegations and counter-allegations made by parents in order to assist the court and avoid the need for a hearing. In my view this is very dangerous territory. This is an effectively judicial function for which Cafcass Officers have no training and unless they are extremely careful they run the risk of making judgements without having the full facts or the skills to challenge the evidence being presented to them by one or other parent.
Has anyone else come across this approach in other parts of the country? The District Judge in the case in which the issue emerged expressed disapproval of the practice for reasons which will be obvious to family practitioners. He also picked up another important practice issue: the welfare checklist has been deleted from the new style analysis & recommendations pro forma with the obvious danger that the statutory criteria may end up being ignored by those charged with advising the court.
LEAPING IN
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*Now I know that there’s lots of nonsense talked about women proposing to
men on 29th February. I’ve even heard that traditionally if the man refuses
the...
13 hours ago
8 comments:
I have evidence Cafcass in Staffordshire actually ignore domestic violence and refuse to liten to childrens accounts about it.They were branded inadequate in their last ofsted report.Shocking but is it ? Family courts are making up the rules as they go along anyway that is why they need to be opened up.
http://thecrimereport.org/2010/05/06/failure-to-protect-the-crisis-in-america%E2%80%99s-family-courts/
This article is well written and points out how various agencies ignore domestic abuse and child abuse in family courts to the detriment of the children and the protective parent. Cafcass e mailed me to say that their policy is- ALL WOMEN MAKE UP DOMESTIC ABUSE- so they ignore it.
This is crazy, as social services and Cafcass and the courts have a duty to protect children and victims of DV. Camilla Cavendish wrote a brilliant article "Battered at home, Battered by the system" in which she explained how DV is ignored in family courts.
Professor Marianne Hester goes even further to show in her 3 planet illustration how Domestic terrorism is ignored because the abusers solicitor sidelines the proceedings in court to seek contact or say the victim is mad or some other nonsense and being skilled in the art of deceipt etc, the abuser runs rings around the judges, Cafcass agents, social workers etc. As an advocate, i see the same pattern day in and day out for 15 years.
It is the collective persecution of the strong females and innocent children as happened in the days of the Inquisition and the family court is the Torture Chamber.
I have just resigned from CAFCASS, for just one reason, ofsted targets, forget about the child, as long as paperwork is completed no one cares. Instead of spending time getting to know the child and family, officers are sat at computers. The duty system, safeguarding and screening cases that have been stacked for months, is appalling. In one case I know of four separate Guardian's attended court on a public law case, not one managed to see the child. Officers complained bitterly with respect to 'the child's needs' being omitted from the PLO, to no avail. Whilst I have not heard of the situation you describe happening anywhere else, nothing would surprise me! I have worked with CAFCASS officers who are caring, experienced and professional, but also frustrated, overworked and being de-skilled by the current system. Systematic bullying by service managers is rife. Believe me when I say, the Public, and in particular children, are not getting the service they so badly deserve and need, both in Public and Private law cases.
to all,
I am a father who is fighting against the system to get access to my daughter whom is 3 months old. I have had DV bought up as an argument and I feel it is a shameful thing that someone that I once loved can use such lies to control my access to my daughter.
Sadly no punishment will given to her once this is all resolved and the truth is out in the open however because I did not fit her lifestyle she made up these allegations and I am likely to miss the majority of my daughters 1st year.
Punishment needs to be applied on both sides to help genuine cases and deter bogus allegations.
Women are favoured in law courts over fathers even when they themselves are in the wrong!!! They use the domestic abuse as a tool to prevent fathers from seeing their children as a last ditch attempt to get one over on them even though no domestic abuse was ever reported to the police!! The side of the women are taken and it's wrong I'm a woman myself and i appreciate that some women are abused and it's wrong I was in a violent relationship myself and find it wrong how some women lie just to prevent fathers from seeing their children! My partners ex is doing just this no abuse was ever reported but because she told the cafcass reporters he was the found it in the best interests of the child he not see her!! Their is no proof of this abuse and the child has not been spoken to because she puts it off and says the child is I'll I'm a mom myself now and I realise that the only one missing out is the child it's all wrong!! Men should have equal rights as women then maybe their wouldn't be an much injustice as their is!
I'm currently going through a contact battle at the county court. Me and my ex partner had a verbal agreement for 14 months regarding access for me to see my son. The agreement broke down one week after I introduced her to my new partner. My ex stopped me from seeing my son and then moved 120 miles away without even telling me. I filed for a contact order which was transfered to her local county court. The first four hearings were a shambles, missing paper work, incorrect addresses. Finaly one Judge that new what he was doing ordered a Short CAFCASS report for safegaurd checks. The CAFCASS officer failed to complete the report for the next hearing but when he finaly completed the report he stated that contact with me the father should resume. The report covered safeguard checks which included Police reports and social service reports which were all clear due to the fact there was never any violence in our relationship. At the hearing the Judge asked my ex how she felt about contact and then her solicitor replied with 'she wants to deny contact due to years of violence and abuse in the relationship therefore she wants a fact find hearing and a full CAFCASS report' which takes 3 months. At the end of the hearing i wasnt even granted supervised visits. Needless to say I'm representing myself as i dont qualify for legal aid like my ex but i cant afford a solicitor. The whole system is a disgrace.
Hi, can any one suggest if i can sue Cafcass on contempt of court...
I am fighting a contact order case. Court ordered the Cafcass in directional hearing to submit his report by 10th December 2010 and ordered me to submit a position statement by 8th November. Cafcass officer never contacted any one until 27th of January. I left number of messages for Cafcass officer but he never bothered to reply back.
On 27th January when I Finally managed to contact with him and asked him regarding the timings of his report, he repied that he never received my position statement. I informed him that i have postal and fax evidence that my position statement was received in his office on due date. He appologised and promised to priortise my case. However, again he never contacted any of the concerened parties and was never available as well. I wrote a letter to the court informing them all the above facts but so far has not received any reply.
I would like to sue Cafcass officer for contempt of court because he lied initially that he has not received my position statement BUT importantly the fact that he failed to comply with the court order to submit his report to the court by the 10th of December 2010.
Due to his deliberate delay i have not seen my childrens since
Please suggest .....
I am a law graduate desperately fighting a contact and shared residency case with my ex who is Japanese.
My ex has a long history of violence and psychiatric treatment and was abusive to me for many years until I finally had enough. She drove me away from my child and refused mediation prior to the birth of our son. Although she did attend one single mediation session following his birth the next week she disappeared and abducted our baby son to Japan which is not a Haig Convention Signatory nation and no extradition treaties exist at all. I had no word of my son or contact for five months until a friend denounced her telling she had returned to the UK and planed to leave again in secrecy. I obtained prohibitive steps orders preventing her leaving again and have been battling it out ever since applying for primary care and shared residency.
She has resisted all contact and I have been forced into attending and paying for supported contact in a range of centres. I was appalled by the first CAFCASS report which was so biased in her favour and contained many mistruths by the CAFCASS case worker such as being unable to view video evidence I had compiled of our contact that I complained. My complaint was not even acknlowledged until five months later when I wrote again and started to phone persistently. Since then another CAFCASS worker has been appointed as guardian ad litem of our child and is currently attemtping to approve my ex's application to travel again to Japan from where no one can retrieve him should she fail to return. As a matter of parity they require me to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before I can be unsupervised with my own child despite raising two healthy and balanced children in a previous relationship. They know she is violent and has psychiatric problems but they have not the slightest intention of treating us equally and want to approve her travel BEFORE any assessments at all. They have also told me that the only way they would even consider taking our son from her is if she directly harmed him. In other words harming me means nothing to them. If I had beaten her for three years as she did me, then abducted our child and was discovered trying to leave the country again I would of course go to prison. They claim this is for our son's well being as the mother son bond is too great to break unless there are compelling reasons to do so but of course if I had abducted him for five months or five years he would be taken from me the very second I was discovered. All of this breaches my right to equality before the law as guaranteed by the UN Convention on Human Rights and all statutes that derive from it. Various reports have now been filed which are all completley biased in favour of the mother in ways I shall not bore you with and simply don't treat us equally. A single example is that our CAFCASS worker cited my ex as 'close to tears' describing how she wanted everyone to know that she was a good mother. In contrast she never even mentioned the fact that I really was in tears throughout most of my interview describing the years of physical emotional and psychological abuse I endured. A section of her report was labelled as 'Mr X's views' and contained not one single word about my views and so on. She even arrogantly announced she had no intention of attending court and defending her statement despite being requested by the Court to do so. When she finally did attend she showed how neutral she was by waiting with my ex and her legal team in a private waiting room and when the case was over she went back in with them. I have seen this scenario played out many times over the years with other male applicants and truly understand why some fathers abused by the system take their own lives rather than endure more pain and watch their children being abused and failed by CAFCASS bias and incompetence.
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