Family Rights Group | Kinship carers’ Forum

We have attended 3 dispute resolution hearings at family court as birth mum applied for CAO as she wants to dramatically increase contact arrangements. CAFCASS did a safeguarding letter and a section 7 report has been submitted with letters from gp and school.
We are now in final hearing stage and to this point we have self represented as we do not have finances to pay £15000 plus.
We have been asked to provide an update from school and a report from therapists, both of which we can organise.
We have no idea how to produce a witness statement. C120 template has been sent by court. Court order states what the judge wants us to focus on.
We have no idea how to cross examine CAFCASS and applicant mum effectively.
We have been told by therapist to ask frg for help and guidance.
Thank you in advance

Dear CDF56,

Thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear about this difficult situation and understand that it can feel very overwhelming when representing yourself during court proceedings.

Unfortunately Family Rights Group cannot offer advise regarding private law matters such as Child Arrangement Orders as we are not funded to provide advice in these types of situations.

I would suggest you contact the following organisations, who may be able to assist you:

• Child Law Advice. They have a telephone helpline which you can reach on 0300 330 5480. In addition, they offer helpful information and guidance for parents/carers in your type of situation and have ‘how to’ guides that you can download for around £2 each. Please do check out their website.

• Advicenow is a website that helps you find the best information and advice for your legal problems. You can choose from a range of categories, such as divorce and separation, child custody and residence, and more.

• Support Through Court can offer support to people who do not have a lawyer.

• Rights of Women. Their family law telephone advice lines can advise you on divorce, cohabitation, parental responsibility and arrangements for children, domestic violence and abuse, finances and property on relationship breakdown, and more.

I hope that this is helpful,
Best wishes,
Suzie