Residency and Residence Orders:

It is almost unknown for a father to win a (sole) Residence Order from the court. It is also extraordinary if a man can get a Contact Order specifying over 40% of the childrens time as this involves taking the children away from their mother, which is anathema to the court (but taking them away from their father is apparently OK see a youTube video clip about a father experiencing this legal kidnapping ): there are only two situations where taking the children from their mother can occur:

1. The mother is a known (i.e. fairly recently convicted) prostitute.
2. The mother is a known (i.e. fairly recently convicted) user of Class A prohibited substances.

Neither of these apply to the overwhelming majority of divorce cases. The hurdle set for women is so low that almost all mothers are "acceptable", so the question of who is the better parent for the child or children - comparing the father and the mother - is simply never asked.

Contact Orders are often attached to Residence Orders. But here again the average father is in a similar situation as with the FDR where the man has basically nothing and only really and provably great dads (with several tens of thousands of pounds in reserve) can get 30 or 40% while women start at 100% and only really provably bad ones get 50%; try and apply for Shared Residence and the best you will be able to accomplish is 49%, because if the man gets over 50% contact he will be able to contest the Child Benefit, leading to him to being able to turn the tables ... e.g. him being able to apply for Child Maintence.

But since Contact Orders (the time when you can see your children) are often (incorrectly) used by mothers as Exclusion Orders (i.e. you are prohibited from seeing your children except at the times specified for contact, perhaps under specified conditions), then getting a Shared Residence Order may well be your only hope of ever seeing your children again. This is a bit of an overstatement because the children will grow to a stage where they can vote with their feet; however the psychological damage done to them and the damage done to your relationship with your children, may well already be done by then. Remember that "Most of the violence committed against children is by women. Violence is especially endemic in fatherless households. Studies of such fatherless households have found the rate of abuse against children as 33 times higher than when both natural parents are present".

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