Case management agreement - possible appeal?

Hi All,

Would like some advice, am at a bit of a loss as to what to do. It''s a bit of a mess!

I had a First Appointment at which we were both LiP. She put a top city law firm on the record just beforehand (separate thread 456527!), sent me a huge position statement full of case law, and turned up with a senior barrister. I wrote a short letter to the Judge asking for an adjournment so I could seek advice and possibly get representation, as I felt this was an ambush, unfair, and I had not had time to consider her position statement. Judge totally ignored this, went ahead anyway and basically let her barrister drive proceedings.

My main issue was that the barrister pushed the judge on to the matter of my nullity Petition, despite this being a financial First Appointment, and the judge himself then turned on me and strongly urged me to withdraw it. Under sustained pressure from a judge, without representation, and not being prepared to discuss divorce matters, it being a financial First Appointment, PLUS this being ten minutes before I absolutely had to leave to pick up my child (having waited in court 6 hours for a 30 minute appointment scheduled first thing), I reluctantly agreed. I then left Court and they carried on in my absence - the Judge said it was not his problem that I had to leave! So I had no idea what the final Order looked like until I received it last week!

I''ve come away, reflected and decided that this was terribly unjust, and withdrawing was not the right thing for all sorts of reasons. An order has been issued with my agreement as a recital - "upon s59 agreeing to withdraw etc" but the actual order just shifts the whole matter to another court for another case management hearing.

Question - what are my options here? If I want to attempt to seek to overturn the one aspect, the recital, of this order, do I appeal via form N161 back to the original court? I know there are very short time limits on appealing case management - 7 days - but I didn''t receive the order in the post for over two weeks and never saw it whilst in court! They''ve sent all the paperwork to the next court already so not sure this would be possible without recalling it to the first court. Perhaps I should go via the N161 route to the next court? Or what else can I do? Could I write to the next judge to say that the order containing my agreement was made in my absence and therefore should be the subject of the next Directions hearing? I feel it was terribly unjust the way proceedings occurred and my status as LiP was exploited like this.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

You really need specialist legal advice PDQ. As you agreed to withdraw the nullity Petition it will be difficult to overturn the order and there may be no point in trying if there are no legal grounds for annulment. The petition needs to sorted out first before the finances because the differences between divorce and annulment can have an impact on the settlement. Also there are cost implications.

Thanks Fiona. Yes it''s all very complicated as there are lots of variables involved - the nullity has good grounds (emotional duress) but I appreciate it''s a fairly high test, so I still consider it a long shot despite the good grounds.

So it''s a gamble of reversing the withdrawal decision, not in itself guaranteed, against the odds of getting it through anyway if I succeeded, vs the cost implications of either path. Nullity doesn''t necessarily work in my favour here, it prevents maintenance but makes the property situation difficult! I''m also worried about creating a bad impression with the judge to whom the case is being transferred.

Did you consult a family solicitor about the chances of success before applying for nullity? Annulment on the grounds of duress can be complicated unless there is evidence of force virtually under threat to life and limb. IF the annulment is opposed the unsuccessful party to the action can be ordered to pay the other sides costs which can be significant because of the legal technicalities involved.

Well no one can give me a straight answer of course, but I am familiar with the relevant case law for nullity. The emotional duress was that my ex used our young daughter as a pawn to make me go through with the wedding - threatening to remove all contact. This combined with her strong coercive and controlling behaviour was, I would argue, enough to remove my free will in the matter. As I say, I know this is still not necessarily enough to swing the nullity but this is my case.

As it happened she did then try to relocate away from me and my family anyway, which I stopped with a PSO. She''s now (6 months later) announced an intention to move anyway which seems to contradict the PSO. I''ve applied for Enforcement but it''s been listed for 5 months'' time... so now I''m praying she doesn''t simply move before then.

This has been a truly terrible episode in my life, my ex really is a toxic person, which makes me all the more sure that escaping her was the right decision, but the best part of three years (it will be by the time we get to final hearing) at war in court has been crippling mentally and financially. We''ve spent every penny we have (£150k) in two houses on legal bills and are now borrowing, and we haven''t even got to FDR yet. She will not mediate, negotiate, will not do anything to progress matters outside of court, indeed she delays matters by submitting duplicate petitions, swamping hearings with irrelevant submissions. The judges give us (both!) gently-slapped wrists for even being in court every time we appear but never seem to actually deal with her behaviour. As I say, she is truly evil. I simply don''t know what to do... How does one deal with someone so impossible?!

I''m very sorry you have had a hard time. Its impossible to negotiate or mediate with someone who is being that unreasonable. Spending £150k on legal bills is madness. Sometimes though you just need to focus on cutting your losses in the most pragmatic way.