JMW’s experienced family law team delivered a plan that allowed a father unsupervised contact with his children by highlighting inconsistencies in a psychiatric report that suggested he had obsessive and anxious tendencies.

The Case

JMW was instructed by a client who wished to secure unsupervised contact with his children following the breakdown of his marriage. There had been findings that the mother and father had been in an emotionally abusive relationship and a psychiatrist who had provided expert evidence suggested that our client had tendencies to display behaviour that was obsessive, anxious and rigid. As a result of this, contact between our client and his twin boys was on a supervised basis.

Our client loved his children dearly and was seeking an order for unsupervised contact with a view to eventually sharing care of the children. The client was also concerned with the affordability of the private school the children were currently attending, and sought an order that the children should be registered at a local state school in the event that it was no longer possible to fund their private education.

How Did JMW Help?

Our client had previously instructed another firm of solicitors, but was unhappy with the way his case was being run. He chose JMW due to our extensive experience dealing with highly contested Children Act proceedings and our understanding of complex issues involving children, including allegations of narcissism, controlling behaviour and parental alienation.

One of the main issues in this case was a difference in the opinions given by two experts - a psychiatrist and an independent social worker, respectively - who had been instructed in the case. The psychiatrist concluded that our client had narcissistic personality traits, in contrast to the social worker’s opinion. As such, the case needed a robust approach and a team that was able to distil the highly technical expert’s report.

JMW robustly defended this assertion on behalf of our client by focusing on the technical assessment of narcissistic personality disorder diagnosis criteria and the inconsistencies within the expert’s report. We aimed to demonstrate to the court that, despite the findings that had been made in respect of our client’s personality traits, he was capable of good parenting and loved his children dearly. We took a structured approach to help the client to achieve this through positive contact sessions, therapeutic interventions and realistic advice on how and when unsupervised contact should be reinstated.