Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Character reference letters

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Character reference letters

    How much weight does the court give to character reference letters? The reason I ask is that by consent, Respondent and I agreed that he would have supervised access to our daughter (10yrs old) through the family centre (still on the waiting list). He has severed contact with our 17 year old son, 4 years ago, and now claims that I brainwashed our son, although we all lived under the same roof until one year ago). The issues for supervised access that I presented were his violence, drinking, neglect, etc.

    The Respondent now challenged it with a motion for unsupervised access, and in support of his claim, he obtained 17 letters from friends, acquaintances and persons in the community (ethnic community) that say what a devoted father he had been to our children. I have now read all the letters, and these people make statements about facts to which they were not privy to, of which they have no knowledge, biased, and although they do not say anything bad about me, they all glorify his portrait as a devoted, dedicated father. As an example, some of these people claim that he was the primary caregiver from the time of the children's birth. This could not be further from the truth, since I was the primary caregiver, and so was my mom. I can also present letters to prove my side of the story, but my question is, is it worth it? How much weight do the courts give to these character references? I will be requesting the children's lawyer in order to represent the interests and voice of my children. My son wrote a statement earlier in which he provided his account of family life, and exposed his father's persistent abuse, and drinking, now the father is using it to demonstrate that I "induced" my son to write this, which is completely untrue. How should I handle this? I do not have a lawyer (due to financial hardship, and I do not qualify for legal aid). Respondent claims he is not working, is homeless, but has retained a lawyer as agent, and pays no child support.

  • #2
    None. Unless it is from an impartial 3rd party with direct ties to your case. For example, a letter from a counsellor you have seen regularly with expertise in the field to fend off allegations. But letters from your family members and friends are meaningless. Of course they’ll say you’re wonderful...

    Comment

    Our Divorce Forums
    Forums dedicated to helping people all across Canada get through the separation and divorce process, with discussions about legal issues, parenting issues, financial issues and more.
    Working...
    X