Dates to avoid - reasons why - MPS awarded

Hi All,

I''ve just been stuffed for MPS which is absolutely unaffordable for me, after a hearing went ahead without me on a date I could not attend. It was listed in my Dates to Avoid which were submitted to Court long before the listing. To be clear, I hadn''t tried to obstruct justice by blocking out large swathes of time - it was a couple of days because of a critical time at work. I''ve been chasing the court for weeks trying to get the date moved. Anyway, it got to the day, and the judge went ahead, noting in his judgement that I hadn''t provided a reason why the date was blocked out. Well, no one had asked?? Is it normal to supply reasons for the particular dates you list to avoid? I''ve never seen it before.

I sent in an email to the judge in the morning which did get to him explaining why I wasn''t there. He''s gone ahead, and with no ability for me to make my position, made the judgement on the basis of my ex''s position statement which is packed full of lies. I feel shocked to be honest. Where''s the justice? Surely as the listing was a court error and I have good reasons for not being there, I have grounds to appeal this?

An appeal can only be where there is new information, an error in law or where there has been misrepresentation.

In your case you will not be able to appeal based on the court listing. The court requests dates of unavailability in order to try to list the matter when all parties can attend. If this is not possible, the court will list the hearing and expect you to turn up whether you have said that you can attend or not.

As an MPS application is pending the main suit, it should be dealt with quickly otherwise it is pointless.

You should now take steps to comply with court Directions as quickly as possible in order that you can negotiate a settlement of the main finances. The longer these are drawn out the more payments - that you cannot afford - you will have to make.

Charles

Thanks Charles. The award has been made at a level that is simply unaffordable for me because it was based upon complete misrepresentation by my ex. She has made it clear that she will pursue me for enforcement also. We have a First appointment scheduled for the end of August, implying there''s a strong possibility we won''t get final hearing this year.

The update on this saga, in case anyone''s interested (!):- So I have been paying what I can afford, which is not the whole amount of MPS awarded in my absence. My ex started sending increasingly mad and very lengthy emails to Court complaining that I was breaching the order and asking for me to be imprisoned.

Oddly I was expecting them to ignore her completely, or perhaps refer her to a C79 enforcement application but she''s just told me they''ve scheduled another hearing for a couple of weeks. I feel like the person who just hears somebody be rude to the airline check-in staff and be rewarded with an upgrade! What''s with the custom treatment?!

This hearing is a two hour hearing which smells to me like a significant hearing - not just MPS. I await to receive the Court notice in case that has anything useful, but my gut feeling is I should gear up for a bit of a gruelling day...