A Issuing Application
(a) The actual form to make a formal application for financial provision is extremely straightforward and can be dealt with by us. Once the application has been issued by the court a hearing date will be fixed for a First Directions Appointment (which is referred to later on in this factsheet) about three months later.
(b) Under the Rules both you and your spouse will be required to complete and serve upon each other and the court a comprehensive Financial Statement setting out your respective positions. Furthermore, the Rules also require both of you to attach certain information to your statements which deal with your bank accounts, savings, pensions and earnings.
(c) The Rules require the Financial Statements to be served at least five weeks before the First Appointment. Thus, the information should be compiled and exchanged in just under two months.
(d) Once the Financial Statements have been received then it will be necessary for us to go through your spouse’s statement and see whether or not they have in fact provided full disclosure of their financial position or if any of it needs to be clarified. The Rules allow you to ask questions relating to their financial position and to request further documentary evidence by way of a questionnaire which needs to be finalised and served at least 14 days before the First Appointment. In addition, we are also required to file and serve at the court a Chronology setting out the history of the marriage and a statement summarising the issues which will need to be dealt with by the court. These two documents also need to be served 14 days before the First Appointment.
(e) It is possible that both you and your spouse may take the view that no further information is required and that the disclosure provided in the financial statements is complete. If this does prove to be the case then there would be no need for a First Appointment and the first hearing could be used as a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing. (This is dealt with later in this factsheet). In any event, we have to inform the court at least 14 days before the hearing whether or not it will be used as a First Appointment or a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing.
A First Directions Appointment (FDA)
(a) This will take place if the disclosure provided in the Financial Statements is not considered sufficient either by you or your spouse.
(b) You will not be required to say anything at this hearing or provide evidence. The first appointment is essentially a procedural hearing which provides the court with an opportunity to set out a timetable as to how the matter should proceed.
(c) The District Judge will consider the questionnaires submitted on behalf of both parties. The purpose of this is simply to enable the District Judge to ensure that the questions that are being asked are reasonable and, more importantly, relevant to the issues at hand.
(d) Once the District Judge has considered the questionnaires he will then make an order as to the time limits within which both parties will have to answer the relevant questions.
(e) The District Judge will also fix a further appointment known as a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing generally 6 - 8 weeks later although it can be longer than that.
(f) Once the above has occurred, the first appointment will come to an end and it generally only lasts 30 minutes.
B Financial Dispute Resolution Hearing (FDR)
(a) As mentioned above, this can either take the place of the FDA if agreed or will be fixed by the court at the FDA
(b) Whilst the FDR takes place before a District Judge it is conducted on a strictly without prejudice basis and the emphasis is on an agreement being reached by consent between you and your spouse. To that end, both of you are required under the rules to put forward without prejudice proposals as to how you think the matter should be settled in advance of this hearing. Then, it is up to us to argue at the hearing why our proposals are reasonable and the Judge acts more as a mediator/conciliator than a Judge because he is not empowered to make any order other than one which is agreed by all concerned. In the event that no agreement is forthcoming then the matter will proceed to a contested hearing.
(c) If a contested hearing is required then the court will make directions as to when this should take place and how long it should take. The court can also make directions that either you or your spouse provide further disclosure if necessary.
C Contested Hearing
If the matter proceeds to this stage then essentially it is up to both parties to argue their cases before a Judge who then makes a final decision. In order to do this, it is usual for both parties to be represented by a barrister and the case usually lasts about 1 - 2 days. Clearly, we must do our utmost to ensure that the matter does not proceed to this stage because of the obvious costs implications.
Comentarios