Rocky relationshiip filled with drug use and spite. The ex filed for Recovery Orders after asking father to have the baby for a few days before she "smashed his head in". Two days later in a meth mood applied for urgent recovery orders, alleged child abuse and ultimately with24 hours police had removed the baby back to her. Two days later she's back with my son. This girl with use the legal system but doesn't understand what the implications are of doing so. False VRO's that are later cancelled, assault charges later dismisssed, false DV accusations..its been hell. My son was never served and had no idea she had full custody of the child till he was 18. More than a year ago she dropped the child off and didn't come back. Son only found out then she had final orders. We applied for change in orders and now have all previous orders cancelled with him with INTERIM ORDERS. The child does not really remember her. My son has never stopped her contact and every time she's wanted to see child has actually paid Ubers for her to get to his house to see the child. She is now ordered supervised visits, and I believe she does not want the child full time. My daughter (who has four kids herself) has agreed to supervise her with the child once a week, and the child now has ICL. The problem is my son won't let her take the child from his house or any families house. She is homeless and couch surfaces. She lied to the courts last appearance about her living arrangements and then ran away from the court. hari strand tessts have been ordered on both of them. How the heck do we end this? I cannot pay for more legal fees, and the lawyer has clocked up thousands in email communication just with us. I've asked her to please call with questions but she insists on emailing EVERYTHING, which results in confusion etc. Son is now applying for legal aid. At the last Directions hearing the ex stated she left the child here in August - it was February 2020. We've independent evidence he was here. The Magistrate has ruled that he will not send this case to conference and will deal with it himself. He is ticked off at her and her behaviour. My question is do we present this independent evidence that we have that the child was with us from February and not August as she alleges at the Directions hearing, and how do we stop this? It's coming back to the very same problem; she is still homeless and he still won't let her take him away because she drags him around drug houses, or refuses to tell him where she is taking him. So we are stuck. Even if they agree the child can live with him, how do we get over this 'visitation' demand from her? Noone is trying to stop her contact with the child. But we don't want him taken to places and addicts and have no clue where he is.....I've asked the lawyer for an itemised account because the costs rocketed, and she got nasty with me. She basically said if I complained she would not re represent my son if he got legal aid. Also, does the Magistrate saying he believes he can deal with it without going to conference make it better or worse? Or is he convinced her previous claims and current actions prove she's an uninterested mother? His comment was that whilst she may have left the child with us, "she made no attempt to go and collect him either".....does anyone have any advice? Do I need to try and find another lawyer? I feel like I'm having to defend all the time and that the lawyer's sympathy is with the mother because of a considerable age difference between my son and the mother. My son is drug free. I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on how we can break this sticking point, because we can't let her take the child when we don't know where he is being taken. The place she is currently staying at was busted for drugs just weeks ago.
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