My husband divorced his ex 2 years ago. It was always a very chaotic relationship. He continues to get abusive phone calls from her. The divorce settlement never discussed an official custody deal. That featured solely on money. It was agreed though that she would have custody and that my husband would have his daughter every Wednes and every other weekend. But there have been many problems. Sometimes when he has not been 30mins late his ex refused to let him see his daughter at all as punishment. She uses the child as blackmail - if he doesn't do 'this' or 'that' then he can't see his child. Final! There must be a way of sorting this out legally where he can see his own child regardless of her statement "I have full custody, she is MY child, so it IS up to ME". Something for my husband to turn around and say "Actually I have, by law, the right to see my daughter, I am coming over now to pick her up and if you don’t let me see her I can do XXX" or something to that effect? Help!
Hi Sorry to hear that. In these circumstances, your husband should apply for a court order for contact under the Children Act 1989, this will almost always be granted. One fundamental principle of the legislation is that the child's welfare should be paramount and in most cases, this is assumed to be upheld by maintaining the child's contact with both parents. Every other weekend friday to sunday, one night in the week and half the holidays is just about average contact that would be given by the court although all cases are slightly different Once a court order has been made, his ex must do whatever the court orders(otherwise she would be in brach of court order and face punishment). This takes priority over anything else. In other words if the court says your husband has a right of contact with his child, it is not up to her to change that unless she goes back to ask the court to make a different order. Hope this helps. Regards.
Experience: Barrister