Single parents' rights

Sorry to hear of this Lois. I was in the same situation myself ten years ago. I don't know about the law now but then I had no parental rights whatsoever, and it would appear that I was just a sperm donor to father the child and a bank account to fund her private lifefstyle which did not include me. Strangely enough, she didn't have the same opportunities in life before she met me, and wanted to continue the lifestyle with me paying for her afterwards.

You will need to look out for your brother as I became very depressed and even suicidal at one point.

The law is wrong, it needs to be changed. Marriage is pretty much socialluy unacceptable these days for the majority (not my personal view at all, but gained from statistical information through my father who is a Rector).

Sadly as much as Fathers for Justice had a following, their political nonsense has damaged their image and as such they have destroyed their original image and lost a whole lot of support. The only advice I could give you for him, is to 'carry on being nice' and to keep his personal diary away from her, as what she doesn't know cannot hurt her/him.

Legal advice is needed to be taken carefully to ensure that it doesn't end up in a huge legal bill - ny advice to my sperm donor was that a large courtcase would remove funds which would have gone to the child. Fortunately she agreed and it didn' go legal.

I hope it works out ok.

And with holding child contact due to personal feelings and making false allegations to frustrate contact isn't underhand???

All the advice I have recieved from those with greater knowledge than me has suggested that as long as one of the parties is aware a conversation is being recorded, then that is sufficient. Sadly when the absent person faces a struggle such as this you use everything in your power to help prove your case.

Someone I have engaged in correspondance with has successfully bought up in a family court a written transcript of a recording of a meeting that they had with a CAFCASS officer to show that the information provided by the CAFCASS officer in court was incorrect.

You can either be pro-active or reactive in situations like this, and the more you remain reactive to the actions of others, the worse situation you put yourself in. As an absent parent it is assumed that I am automatically not a decent parent in the eyes of the law and it is for me to prove otherwise. I intend to do that with any means at my disposal.

The court will look at what is in the childs best interests, and until I can prove otherwise, the court will look to keep the current situation as it is. I know I am a decent parent, but the court doesn't know that, I have to prove it.

RIPA states that you can record a conversation for your own purposes without informing the other party as you are a private individual, not a government or a commercial organisation.

Although you may not be able to use the raw recording in court, you can transcribe it to paper and read from that in court, then if the other party disputes this copy you can ask to make the raw recording admissable.

Also the criteria for family courts is different to the criteria in a criminal court due to family matters being held behind closed doors.