Problems with courts

Just a heads up for those members who have court proceedings ongoing. I''ve been finding out that the reorganisation of courts after April 2014 is causing some problems. For example, courts which used to issue divorce petitions are no longer doing so and simply post the petitions to another court for this to be done. As a result, there''s a delay being created.

A lot of courts are now sending post out second class as well. I don''t see that this is actually permitted under the court rules but it''s definitely happening. More delay as a result.

The worst of all was when I heard recently that some courts have print centres. Orders are being uploaded to a secure cloud facility and then being printed and posted from a printing centre the other side of the country. This means that the local court has no way of knowing just when an order got put in the post, only when they uploaded it. The delayy I have encountered was about two weeks as a result.

Thank you for this important update, Jonathan.

It sounds a right old mess

Delay, delay, delay. And I have to make phone calls to a telephone help desk instead of speaking to someone actually at the court. Aargh!

And now for some good news, many courts now have restricted opening times, some close at 1-2pm, and many no longer have a direct line, calls go to a call centre, and the system they use is often only updated weekly, so if you call and ask do you have my form/ application, well they can''t actually tell you.

And another old chestnut gains a new invigorated life - if you make the least clerical error in a Petition, they just send it back. Like missing out the words "in the" from the section about where the marriage took place. And as for a marriage abroad, they really don''t like those.

I think it''s just an excuse to get paperwork off their desks quickly and back onto someone else''s. I sometimes get these returns and I''ve been doing this for years. I dread to think what it must be like for people doing their own divorces for the one and only time.

The fact is the failure rate for non solicitors is very high indeed, the forms are quite alien and unfriendly to all but lawyers, even then we see lawyers who are not family law practioners making mistakes.

It''s a shame the slip rule or something close isn''t extended to divorce applications.

It would also help to make juristiction plain, where were you born where do you live now and for how long type questions.

Part 10 causes much confusion, most think it''s a claim being made rather than a route to a CO.

The centralised courts that we now have seems nothing more than a money saving exercise, just not fit for purpose.

My problem with the centralisation is that I simply don''t know and can''t seem to find out which courts are authorised to issue petitions and which are just hearing centres.