26-Sep-2016, 09:20 AM
At my recent pre-trial hearing, I got to meet the independent children’s lawyer that had been appointed to our case.
As I understand it, she was appointed by the Court, and it was done in a random manner as she was next in the list.
It was the first time I had met or seen her however, and as a Self-represented Litigant, I thought it proper to introduce myself but she declined my attempt.
She said that anything she had to say to me would be dome via the court room, which I found both unnecessarily aggressive and started me thinking whether she was biased against me
Through-out the day, I found out that she had interviewed my wife in a personal face to face meeting, and also interviewed my child.
She however never contacted me, nor did she even inform me that she intended to interview my wife, nor was she evidently interested in interviewing me.
That pre-trial hearing achieved very little, but for the Court suggesting that a Family Report writer write a report on our family dynamic.
I had no issue with this, but as soon as the Judge mentioned it, the ICL made a recommendation that a certain report writer be assigned this task.
I had no idea who this report writer was, or whether she would be objective, but I was suspicious based on the enthusiasm of the ICL.
The Judge did ask me whether I objected to this report writer, to which I said ‘No’, but now I regret agreeing to it.
Given the ICL’s behaviour, I am very worried that the Report Writer was chosen because of her reputation, but I have not been able to find out much information on her one way or the other so far.
Can I get the selection of report writer reviewed, given my concerns? Can I nominate another report writer, who I believe would be more objective?
I am now very anxious that I have been set up by an ICL who has clearly demonstrated who she sympathises with in our child custody dispute.
As I understand it, she was appointed by the Court, and it was done in a random manner as she was next in the list.
It was the first time I had met or seen her however, and as a Self-represented Litigant, I thought it proper to introduce myself but she declined my attempt.
She said that anything she had to say to me would be dome via the court room, which I found both unnecessarily aggressive and started me thinking whether she was biased against me
Through-out the day, I found out that she had interviewed my wife in a personal face to face meeting, and also interviewed my child.
She however never contacted me, nor did she even inform me that she intended to interview my wife, nor was she evidently interested in interviewing me.
That pre-trial hearing achieved very little, but for the Court suggesting that a Family Report writer write a report on our family dynamic.
I had no issue with this, but as soon as the Judge mentioned it, the ICL made a recommendation that a certain report writer be assigned this task.
I had no idea who this report writer was, or whether she would be objective, but I was suspicious based on the enthusiasm of the ICL.
The Judge did ask me whether I objected to this report writer, to which I said ‘No’, but now I regret agreeing to it.
Given the ICL’s behaviour, I am very worried that the Report Writer was chosen because of her reputation, but I have not been able to find out much information on her one way or the other so far.
Can I get the selection of report writer reviewed, given my concerns? Can I nominate another report writer, who I believe would be more objective?
I am now very anxious that I have been set up by an ICL who has clearly demonstrated who she sympathises with in our child custody dispute.