C100 - what do I need to do next....?

Hi, I''m father to my 3 year old girl who has spent all of her life cared for equally between her mom and I. We separated three years ago and divorced last year. Care has remained totally equal until i moved in with my new partner abd now my ex wife stops me seeing my daughter for 2 week periods and then only allows me the occasional night with her. She has also claimed via CMS. She has told me to only communicate via her solicitor but now she won''t do that. I just have to collect my daughter when she says and return her when she says.

I can''t go on with the situation ad it is and I''ve just about got my head round completing the C100. I''ve attended a MIAM but my ex wife refused to attend.

I''m aware that I need to do a parenting plan which should be relatively easy however I''ve also read on the internet that I ''need to prepare a separate typed statement, providing a comprehensive and well-argued case including all the relevant case law, etc and only use the box on the C100 form to write a summary

It also advises that I should ''also prepare a draft version of the order you want the Court to make''

Can someone please help me as I don''t know where to start with the statement including case law or putting together a draft version of the order I want the court to make.

Any help much appreciated. Thanks

I submitted a C100 around two months ago and I managed to get a 50:50 child arrangements order but for older children so I can explain what I did but it maybe different for younger children and hopefully other posters will chip in with their experience also.

I submitted the C100 and in section 3b I put down basically what I wanted. My ex didn''t want to go to mediation so I went to the MIAM''s and got the section 14 filled in by them. After sending it there was a Directions hearing and then I got the order to go to court. I had prepared a calendar where I had crossed off exactly the nights that I had each child for as in over the previous three months before going to court I had established the pattern that I wanted to achieve. My ex has a new partner so she was happy to cooperate with the additional "free" child care but I didn''t say at that point I was going to apply for shared care. So in court I didn''t provide any references to case law, frankly that is best left to barristers and if you are presenting in person I don''t think you are expected to know all that and the judge or the clark in the magistrates will help you will all that anyway. There was a phone call from the CAFCASS lady a couple of weeks before and there were no safeguarding issues and then when I went into court I just repeated what I''d like to happen and showed my calendar to show that the pattern had already been established and there were no issues and then they granted the order. My ex didn''t not raise any issues I think at least partly due to pressure from her partner as they probably enjoy having more time to themselves.

So that''s my experience of what I did and what happened in relation to your case I would print off and make a calendar that you can pass up to the judge / magistrates showing what your schedule used to be like. Your argument is I assume that you would like to return to the previous arrangement and that your ex has only changed this arrangement since you moved in with your new partner. I would expect your ex to come up with various allegations against your new partner but that will come through in the CAFCASS safeguarding report and they may well want to do checks on your new partner but it maybe that your ex has just got jealous and feels threatened that your daughter will want to join your "family unit" rather than be with her and these people will have seen that many times before.

The next move your ex may do is through the courts apply to move away, or say the issues with contact are causing stress to her and the child so getting a court order may not be the end of it and you really want to aim for 50:50 care as then it''s a lot more difficult for her to argue that she should be able to move away.

When you have a 50:50 child arrangements order the law states that you should not pay any child maintenance. There are still some issues with people at the CMS not understanding this but there is an organisation called NACSA that can for not much be your representative so as the CMS are not legally allowed to contact you directly and they really know what they are doing as they deal with the CMS everyday.

I didn''t do a parenting plan as I think that was meant to be done by both of you in mediation but maybe this is more appropriate for smaller children.

I did prepare a draft version of the order I wanted the court to make and that in the end made up around half of the order as in word for word. The way I did it was just point by point so like

1. XXXX to stay with Father on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Father will have primary responsibility for her for that time.
2. XXXX to spend Christmas with mother in 2015 and then with father in 2016 and then alternating.
3. XXX to stay with Mother on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Mother will have primary responsibility for her for that time.

etc etc whatever else you want to list. I wasn''t that fussed about setting Absolute times but maybe that would be needed in your case and maybe you want to put down how the transfer of the child should work or where it should happen or things like that. With a court order you can put down whatever you like and then the judge or magistrates will just chop out or add what they want to but hopefully a fair bit of what you want if you write it out properly will make it in.

Keep posting if you find this useful or pm me if you want to ask something specific in private.

Just to add, fairly recently the government has produced I think some guidelines which state that the presumption is that there will be shared parenting. This doesn''t mean exactly 50:50 time wise but basically the only argument that really needs to be made is by your ex as to why there shouldn''t be shared care, as in you don''t have to go in there and argue why there should be as that''s the accepted default position.

When you are in court just treat it as a normal conversation that you would have say with your doctor as in it''s just a transactional conversation your having with a professional. If you think you may get shouty or emotional then if you can afford it it may be worth getting some representation on the day and there are an increasing number of direct access barristers that you can employ without having to employ a solicitor to do the paper work or you can employ a solicitor to represent you in court but to be honest most of the solicitors I''ve been up against have been pretty useless at presenting in court. With the magistrates rather than the judges you can try to engage them a bit more and they seem to like to have a bit of a chat as it''s probably fairly boring being a magistrate and most of the legal side of things are handled by the clark.

Naziam, that''s wonderful. I sorted my divorce myself using advice from Wikivorce and thought I wouldn''t have to face anything like this again. I''ll read everything you''ve written in detail and thrn pick your brains again if I can. I am so grateful for you taking the time to write what you have - it means an awful lot, Mark

Naziam, I''ve read what you''ve written - I can''t explain how reassuring it is, it''s choked me a bit to think that you''ve taken the time to help me. I''ve been worrying terribly about it. I''m going to make some notes and keep in touch with you for more advice if that''s ok? Thanks again, Mark

That''s very kind of you to say and yes please keep asking questions and I will try to answer or other''s can step in.

Ive got my date for the FHDRA today. On the forms it states ''The child is living with the respondent mother and is spending time with the applicant father''. I made it clear on my C100 that my daughter lives with both of us so Im confused by this - are there any implications of it being worded like this? Thanks