Breached order - can costs be claimed?

What are Mum's finances like? Even if the contact order has been properly served and there is no reasonable excuse for failing to comply with the contact order the court must take into account her financial circumstances and the welfare of the child. Fines are/were rarely imposed because it is not consistent with welfare of a child to deprive a parent on a limited budget so I envisage there will be similar problems with compensation claims.

Mum's finances are fine, she is above the threshold for legal aid and works as a midwife. She lives at home with her parents and sister (!). The 10yr old child shares a room with mum (it is a small room).

Bottom line is mum can afford it.

She knows about the Court order and has decided to breach it fully well knowing what the consequences are.

Yesterday dad turned up to collect the child as per Court order (and agreed by consent at Court) at 6pm for his 'long weekend' fri-sun contact.

Mum answered the door on the phone (presumably to her solicitor!) saying "yes, he's here, I'm going to slam to door in his face" ... which she proceeded to do!

Dad rang again (to be met with mum saying that she felt threatend and harassed and would call the police ... which would have been interesting if it did happen!), backed off then phoned the ex to see if she was going to let the child come to dad - she did not.

God knows what a 10 yr old was thinking, presumably either in the back room or in her bedroom, wanting to go to dads but mum pressurising her not to. It's emotional child abuse pure and simple.

I hope we get costs awarded, enforcement of the order and either alternate weekends granted (which we will request) or (more likely) CAFCASS to become finally involved to either do a family assistance order or some form of family therapy and/or parenting classes to be attended by mum

... judging by the state of cafcass though nationally as they seem to be in total meltdown I won't hold my breath.

I'm not condoning mum at all for withholding contact especially Court ordered contact but is there a real reason for her hostility to contact or is this quite simply another mum using her child to hurt an ex? I say this as I get the impression that there is no involvement by Cafcass/social workers at the present time and that in itself just seems a bit odd within the context of residency/contact proceedings. I thought that even in non-hostile/mitigating circumstances the Court required an independent valuation of the child's welfare/interests so for Court proceedings to have seemingly been "amicable" just rings a bell to me anyway. Although on a second thought the Contact Order has already been made and agreed and therefore should be adhered to by the parties end of!

As for being awarded costs - I would bet diamonds (if I had any lol) that there is not a ice pop in hell's chance of a costs award being made against mum (I take it we are not talking McCartney or Madonna here). Raise it by all means as LIP always worth a try but don't hold your breath.

Mum's reason is pure spite and control.

She is controlling and wants to know about every single aspect of what dad is doing on his time, to the extent that if she feels that she does not know the full itinery of where, what and when he is doing X,Y and Z (and she phones constantly during dads time, thus putting stress on the child) she threatens to withold contact.

She witholds court-ordered telephone contact, putting the telephone on loud speaker and interrupts phone calls.

Her actions are completely unreasonable and about herself rather than putting the child at the centre of this.

CAFCASS have not been involved yet because court proceedings have not got to that stage - it has been brought up by me that if the Court deems necessary consideration should be given for cafcass involvement - so far they have not although a wishes and feelings report may be ordered.

It may be that a family assistance order is asked for next week, plus some form of parenting class/family therapy for the ex.

Costs are appropriate in this matter - mum is aware of the new enforcement measures available (she has a solicitor).

The Court has powers before it and lets not forget that a court ORDER has been broken (hint - it's an order, not a suggestion) - which has been made with the child's best interests. By such actions, mum is not acting in the child's best interests, is showing contempt for the court, confirming the view that 'court orders aren't worth the paper they're written on' (one of mum's comments to dad), so the Court should act to reimburse dads expenses (which otherwise would have been spent on the child for her benefit) and sends a clear message to all parents that court orders should be observed.