Today, could be a red letter day for all those men who find that their lawful contact with their children is being stopped by recalcitrant ex-wife.
As reported here (Telegraph):-
"Mothers...will be hit with tough punishments for breaking contact orders handed down by family courts. They can be sentenced to up to 100 hours of unpaid work in the community for breaking the orders, with the penalty doubling to 200 hours and a fine if they fail to abide by the punishment.
In addition, parents can be forced to attend therapy sessions and parenting lessons in the terms of the contact orders.
The new rules come into effect from Monday in provisions of the Children and Adoption Act 2006 that aim to strengthen the power of the authorities to deal with parents who block contact."
The biggest single cause for groups such as (Real) Fathers For Justice et al has been that the judges and courts have simply refused to enforce the contact orders that have been handed down. Aided and abetted by weak enforcement, CAFCASS officers who nearly always side with the mother, a legion of mothers have been successful in stopping their children from seeing their father.
The isue here though, is that whilst these will help, it is likely that onlyy in the most extreme cases will they be used. This is because the 'special pleaders' of the family law industry (lawyers, social services, CAFCASS etc) will tell judges looking to punish mothers that it will do more damage to the children. It means they will be used sparingly and will not be the norm so the likelihood is that recalcitrant mothers will continue to get away with it.
For evidence, the quote in the Telegraph article, says:-
But others claim the new sanctions will criminalise mothers and fathers unnecessarily, and point out that single parents will struggle to find the time to attend courses as well as meeting the costs, which could reach £2,500.
Of course, if all mothers actually abided by the contact orders, then none would fall foul of the new punishments, would they!!
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