#Article66

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Welcome back to another brilliant vlog and today I will be exploring when people contact me saying that their Child Arrangements family court case is complex, and I would respectfully suggest that it isn't.

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I am Philip Kedge the director of the amazing McKenzie Friend UK Network where nothing i say represents legal advice, because you don't need rip off family lawyers and you don't need legal advice and where my views and opinions are entirely my own. 

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It is very common that people contact me saying 'Phil, can you help me, I have a complex family court case and it is likely going to be the most complex case you have ever come across.' Errrmm no its not, its likely to be nothing more than a straightforward case that the family court deals with day in and day out. 

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Now, what then becomes entirely depressing is that these people have already handed over thousands and quite often tens of thousands of pounds to family lawyers who have heightened their sense of anxiety, fear and hysteria and financially exploited their ignorance and lack of understanding of the family court process.

5. If you run off to a family lawyer and suggest that your case is complicated they are going to rub their hands in glee, they are going to continue to let you believe that it is complicated and even reinforce that falsehood because doing so is going to be worth thousands of pounds more in transferring money from your bank account into theirs. 

6. So, let's take a reality check, the family court determines with whom the child lives and spends time with the other parent, and there may be a specific issues order or prohibited steps order thrown in. Now these cases are not legal disputes, these cases are based on common disagreements about with whom a child should live and how the child should be raised. The court simply applies what is known as the child welfare checklist to determine what is in the best interest of the children. Even accusations of domestic abuse are not complicated, domestic abuse is cited in about 80% of family court child arrangement cases and follows a well worn entirely familiar path laid out in what is called practice directions 12J. 

7. You see, when it comes to child arrangements, there is only a finite number of disagreements and arguments between two parents in relation to their children and the mud they want to throw at each other, the family court and Cafcass has heard every single scenario over and over again. When I look at my years of being a McKenzie Friend since 2013, I haven't come across anything new or challenging for several years. So, let me give you an example of a family court scenario where a person claims it to be complex.

8. A woman, who I will call Abigail was in a same sex relationship and her ex is the biological mother. Abigail doesn't have parental responsibility as she is not on the birth certificate. The ex has moved away with the four year old child and relocated over 100 miles away.

9. Now Abigail, panics, believing that her case to be complex and goes running off to a lawyer who claims to be a specialist in LGB issues and before Samantha even sees the inside of the family court has charged her over ten thousands pounds. Abigail herself admits that she has paid a premium rate because her case is complex and needs an LGB specialist.

10. Well, the truth is that Abigail has been well and rotaly ripped off, you see there is no such thing as a specialism in LGB same sex issues in the family court in relation to child arrangements. There is no separate pathway through the process if you are Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual. The family court simply doesn't discriminate or deal with a person any differently being Lesbian, gay or bisexual, and this is clearly stated in the Equal Treatment Bench Book. 

11. The circumstance that Abigail finds herself in is no different to a stepmother or stepfather, at the end of a relationship, wanting to stay in contact with the child of their ex, where they are not the biological parent and don't have parental responsibility. This situation is reasonably common which the family court deals with by applying the same family court pathway as any other case with the only slight bolt on being that if you don't have Parental Responsibility you have to seek the permission of the court to apply for a child arrangements order which is in itself a straightforward process and forms part of the c100 application.

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This is a classic example of someone who thinks their case is complex and then hands over, wait for it, ten thousand pounds to a rip off sick in the head family lawyer for the privilege of believing it to be complex which it isn't. I could have assisted Abigail to where she was in the process for less than £500.

13. Now, there is one other issue which I think is interesting to mention and this is an observation. Very often, when people state that their case is complicated, they seem to get some sort of emotional satisfaction in believing that it is. It is almost as if they want to feel special or to climb the ladder of self victimhood in order to stand out above the crowd, 'look at me, my case is complicated, it's more complicated that yours'. Is see this as a form of extreme attention seeking, the result of which is that they are likely to get ripped off by tens of thousands of pounds by the family lawyer vultures. 

14 So, to conclude, if you think that your case is complicated, perhaps you need that reality check, and you can do that by booking a 1 hr 1-1 case review with myself via video platform, where you can send me your documents for a pre-read. The cost of the full and frank case review is only what you would spend on half an hour with a rip off lawyer. To take me up on that brilliant offer, simply go to contactphil.co.uk. I hope to hear from you today, until next time stay strong.