Today I wrote my letter of appeal for Legal Aid. I hope it works. It's below.
Dear Dennis
Reference Number :XXXXX/
Appeal to the External Review Officer – Legal Aid Result
Matter: How Much Time My Children Spend With Me Or The Other Parent
(Contact/Access)
I am writing to you in regards to your letter dated 15 June 2009. I am disappointed to find that my application has been refused for legal aid in relation to how much time my children spend with me or the other parent (Contact/Access).
In regards to the first reason for refusal I have managed to determine the address of the other party I am in dispute with. Please find it below:
<deleted for stupid cow's privacy>
I was especially disappointed to find that you were unable to justify the legal costs involved based on the benefit/detriment I may receive/suffer if legal aid was provided. For three years Lucien has been a major part of my life and I a major part of his. He calls me Mummy, refers to me as one of his mums in general conversation and is greatly confused as to why we no longer see each other. I have treated and loved him as though he were my own son and to not have any contact with him for such long periods of time is extremely distressing to me.
I have tried on numerous occasions to contact Deryka in regards to seeing Lucien for a few hours after school or over the holidays, however she has never answered or returned my phone calls or messages. The only time I am able to see him is when Rebecca comes down for holidays from Townsville and Lucien spends a few days with her, however this only occurs every three to four months.
Yesterday I saw Lucien for the first time since early March this year and seeing him, and hearing him express his feelings of loss has heightened my resolve to fight for what is best for him. Numerous times he expressed how much he missed me, asked why he wasn’t allowed to visit and told me that he loved me. After approximately three hours together I had to leave and his distress upon me leaving, and not understanding when he will see me again brought him to tears and brought on a flood of ‘I love you’ and ‘I miss you’ and ‘I don’t want you to go.’ The next time I may be able to see him will be in October if Rebecca comes back down to visit. If she doesn’t, and he goes up to Townsville instead, I don’t know when I may see him again.
The thought of this extended period of absence brings me to tears and breaks my heart. Not a day goes by when I don’t miss him and think about him. He was such a huge part of my life for such a major part of his development that I feel the loss of my little boy very strongly.
As you can see from my application, I am a full time student and while I would certainly be able to provide for Lucien during the times that he visits me, in no way can I afford the legal costs involved in taking Deryka to court to dispute this matter with her. As I can’t get in contact with her, and her history of confrontation with me, I believe that mediation would not resolve anything, if she even agreed to participate. I strongly believe that the only way I will be able to have regular access or contact with Lucien is if the court demanded that I be allowed to have this right.
Rebecca, Lucien’s biological mother, agrees that I should be able to see Lucien regularly and has tried reasoning with Deryka, however has been unable to convince her that it is in Lucien’s best interest to be able to see me. Deryka has never got along with me and has a huge issue with jealousy when it comes to my relationship with Lucien. The last time I spoke to Deryka was when she called me one afternoon in September last year after Rebecca had allowed me to pick Lucien up from school and spend some time with him. She found out that he was with me and spent 15 minutes abusing me on the phone saying I had no right to see Lucien anymore as I was no longer Rebecca’s partner, that he didn’t love me, I had ruined his life and that I needed to stay away from him or else she would take matters further. I won’t deny that Deryka intimidates me and that her history of violence, drug addiction and her previously controlling relationship with Rebecca scares me a little. Last I knew, Deryka was working as a prostitute from a private apartment in Alexandra Headlands and I haven’t known her to have another profession in the last three years.
I have spoken with several client information officers and a solicitor through the legal aid hotline and all of them have agreed that I have a right to see Lucien and that the Family Law system will allow me to have access to him on a regular basis. They were also surprised at the fact that my application had been refused and encouraged me to appeal to the External Review Officer.
I plead with you to reassess my situation and grant me access to legal aid so I can have contact with a child who I love and care for and who misses me as much as I miss him. I believe that it is in his best interest to have contact with me on a regular basis and that to deny this access will only have a negative impact on him in the long term.
I await your reply and hope that you agree that the benefit Lucien and I would receive by allowing regular contact justifies the costs involved tenfold.
Regards
Carla Bailey
Faith, belief, religion...
I am so sick of the holidays already and can't wait to get back to uni and be busy again. I am sick of not having a purpose and things to do and places to go.
Ok, so I'm using tonight (my last night without my girl, yay, she's all mine from tomorrow :)) to get everything on here that's been on my chest, and just a bit more. Haha.
Oh dear.
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How well do you think you know yourself? How well do others think they know you? Which is more important?
Submitted by SearchingForThatOnePerson.
I think I know myself fairly well, yet still things do surprise me when they finaly hit me. It does happen, but on the whole I know what sort of person I am, what I want and need and how I may react or feel.
Others... Cariad would know me best, maybe as good as I do. Other people I don't think so. I don't think it matters so much but I think it's important that at least one person knows you well.
I'm sorry I'm away. I feel rotten leaving you at home by yourself. I feel like I've deserted you, but I haven't. I wish I was with you. It just made sense to stay here tonight, I'm glad I didn't drive home, I was all spacey by 4:00. I won't leave you again. I hope you're not mad at me.
It's frickin' FREEZING today. I'm snuggled on the couch trying to study for my pharmacology exam tomorrow, but it's just not happening very well. I can't get warm enough to stop shivering, I can't get my mind of Twilight, and Pink tonight and I think it sucks missing out on most of Pride day tomorrow for this dumb arse exam.
If could re-live one day of your life, which day would you choose?
Oh wow. What a question. I have so many to choose from, I don't even know where to begin deciding on one.
Would it be the last day I spoke to my best friend, so I could try and rectify it; my first day of real freedom from Jess; one of the many days on the boat; an ordinary day with Kate, Anna and Joe when we used to have so much fun; the day I fell in love; the day of our major band competition; an ordinary day with Lucien; one of the many camping trips; random days with friends; new years eve 2000, 2001, 1992; new years day 2001; any day of running feral as a kid, getting up to mischief and creating adventures?
I honestly don't know, I've had too many special days to choose just one.
Well, t has certainly been a long time since writing anything remotely decent on here. A lot of interesting and not so interesting things have happened. Stuff chronological order, I'll just go with what comes into my head.
Went for a ride today up to Daybro and then up Mt Mee to D'Aguilar and then back down the highway to home. Ben was supposed to come with us but he pulled a drunk text in the morning. Silly Boy. I thoroughly enjoyed myself :) There were only a few slightly scary moments where I had to remind myself that Cariad did infact know what she was doing. I still have some issues with corners, but I think that's mainly because I don't actually have anything decent to hold on to and I'm kind of just perched on this God uncomfortable seat! But I wouldn't not do it either :) I am certainly learning to let go of my 'I must be in control' issues, it's kind of fun sorting that out. Putting my trust in someone else that they know exactly what they're doing and I don't need to be involved, and to just shut up. I think it's good for me. I can't wait to get my own bike. Hopefully my tax return will be significant enough to cover that, as I'm sure not going to be able to afford it any other way. We'll see what happens.
I have a 12 hour shift at the hospital tomorrow, but I'm not complaining becuase it's my choice to do 12 hours instead of 8. It just means I have to do less shifts :) Hopefully it's a little more busy than last time, that was actually bordering on the deadly boring. Having to give a needle would be good, but I'd feel bad torturing a little kid like that, and the majority of them all have IV lines anyway. I don't think I'd like to work long term on a kids ward. I like the kids, but having to deal with parents, ughh.
I broke my vow of not reading any books during semester by starting the Twilight series again. They're really not very intelligent books but I really do like them. I think it's just such a beautiful love story. I like stories that are very real, but not. Not that that makes much sense but pfft. I can't believe they ruined the movie so dreadfully. It misses out the true point of the books and makes them sound like rediculous whingers. (I hate Firefox, it doesn't have an inbuilt spell checker like Safari).
Anyway, I've had enough now. Nothing interesting comes to mind when I sit down to write. It's all in my head when I'm driving.
Bye
Recent Comments
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Dylan said:
Um, my FF has spellcheck included! (V 3.0.8) It just doesn't offer corrections...And Cariad's not enough to hold on to?... read more
on Long time... -
Strixaluco said:
[this is good]Makes me miss the avocado and 3-cheese sub from Bill & Ruth's. I don't know what the three cheeses were,... read more
on QotD: This QotD is Making Me Hungry -
Firefly said:
I'm not sure sure about the Vegemite but the salami and avacodo with brie sandwich sounds yummy. :) read more
on QotD: This QotD is Making Me Hungry
Good luck hun! It's a moving letter. I hope it wins you your visitation rights. read more
on The appeal...