Decree hearing attendance - costs

Hi

Happy new year

I have been away for xmas and new year and just walked in on 01/01 to find a divorce decree document from the court at my door - Certificate of entitlement to a decree dated 17/12/2015.

Petitioner has asked to claim costs from me and I need to attend hearing on the 20th Jan 2016 if I am to contest costs in Bury st. edmonds (I live in London).

I cannot attend hearing on that date.

Can I send a letter instead to judge and is it too late to send this? If I can send a letter who and where do I send this to?


The petitioners solicitors left me no room to negotiate and didn''t even send a copy of the divorce petition to me. They didn''t even ask for my address where I was staying and filed the petition with "Unknown address".

The Petitioner and I are on bad terms - no communication and only through the solicitors.

I have agreed to the divorce on the acknowlegement of service but only said I will pay half the court cost. What is your advice please?

Thanks

was hoping to write the letter with the following forma - can someone please say if this sounds ok?

Dear Sir/Madam



The Petitioner and her solicitor have not followed the usual protocol by sending me a copy of the Petition and provided no room to negotiate costs. They even raised the petition without knowing my temporary address and raised as "unknown address" and sent me a copy of the petition after sent back from the court. I was oblivious to the fact that the divorce petition was even lodged at court. Additionally I was given only 2 days late september/october to send my acknowledgment of service in order to meet court timelines due to the way the petitioners solicitors handled this matter. I have attached evidence of the timescales with the letter from her solicitor and a copy of the Petition.

I would also like to explain my reasons on why the reasons stated in the peition are not true as I stated on the Acknowledgement of Service, but I accepted that the marriage is over but only accept paying half the court fee (£205):

{state my opinion why the reasons on petiotion are not true}

Thanks

Sorry to go on -

The court document says that "A party will not be heard unless he or she served on the court and the other party notice of his or her intention to attend the hearing and to apply for or to oppose the making of an order for costs not less than fourteen days before the hearing"

What does this mean - Can I just send a letter to court and do I have to send something to petitiones solicitors too?

Sorry again

What is considered costs for divorce?

My ex have requested all comms to go via solicitors with no direct comms.

In addition to the divorce proceedigns emails - I have sent various emails about reconciliation and a few about houses etc.
Overall there must have 20-30 emails.

Are they all considered part of divorce costs?

I am very worried what the costs are going to be? should I even bother to contest the divorce costs or just pay and appoint my own solicitors to deal with finacial proceedings?

Sorry to bombard with so many messages.

The costs of the divorce are those which relate only to the court fees of £410 and any legal fees relating only to the actual divorce proceedings (not any discussions or proceedings re the finances or children).

If your Petition was on the basis of either adultery or unreasonable behaviour, then it is usual for the Petitioner to seek costs . You should contact her solicitor to discuss the amount of costs, and how they will be paid. Should you refuse to pay costs then they will seek a costs order from court, which involves a process detailed here

Sending the letter to the court you have written above won''t achieve anything - and you would have had your opportunity to state on your D10 if you agreed with the the statement of case so including that in a letter is irrelevant.

Hi there

thanks for your reply. Ex solicitor replied with the following after sent a initial negotating email:


We write further to your offer to address legal costs further to the Declaration of Decree Nisi to take place on the 20th January.

Whilst we note the fact that you originally stated that you would offer to contribute 50% of the Court fee (£205.00), having considered these observations, the Courts have effectively rejected this offer and stated that you should pay our client''s total costs of the divorce proceedings themselves. This of course relates to the divorce and not any financial negotiations.

However, this does include our costs on behalf of our client in addressing the divorce through the various stages and not just a contribution towards the Court''s issue fee.

In short, the offer you make is frankly misconceived.

We have advised our client that the approximate costs of running the divorce through the various stages would be £1,000.00 plus VAT plus the Court fee. This is of course a figure of £1,610.00.

In order to reach an agreement by way of contribution, we are prepared to limit the amount claimed to a global figure of £1,500.00 payable by yourself on Decree Absolute being declared.

This is a reasonable offer to address these matters and clearly far more realistic than the token offer that was previously made by yourself.



Can I reply with the following - Please advise. Thank you:

The initial court fee is just £410 and the decree Absolute is only £40 and there are no other court fee to be paid. £1,610.00 is a lot more than to what you initially quoted your client of £1200 (inc VAT). The divorce has been uncontested and there is no reason why the figure has escalated to such a vast amount. Indeed you have been unreasobable in the way that you have handled the divorce, for example, sending several chaser emails to me on the acknowledment of service, even though there is proof that it was sent back to court 2 days after I received it from yourself.


Additionally it was a short Petition and provides no justification for you to run the divorce into such a large amount. You also failed to provide to follow basic protocols to send me the petition and didn''t allow to negotiate the cost before the Acnowledgement of Service was sent.


In anycase I am prepared to greatly increase my initial contribution from £205.00 to £600.00 (half the initial that you orginially quoted to your client including VAT). This will be global figure of my contrbution by myself on Decree Absolute being granted. This is far more fair and share the costs equally based on the initial quote that you made to your client. I have also asked for breakdown of the figure which you have not provided so far.

Thank you

Can I reply with the following - Please advise. Thank you:

The initial court fee is just £410 and the decree absolute is only £40 and there are no other court fee to be paid. £1,610.00 is a lot more than to what you initially quoted your client of £1200 (inc VAT). The divorce has been uncontested and there is no reason why the figure has escalated to such a vast amount. Indeed you have been unreasobable in the way that you have handled the divorce, for example, sending several chaser emails to me on the acknowledment of service, even though there is proof that it was sent back to court 2 days after I received it from yourself.


Additionally it was a short petition and provides no justification for you to run the divorce into such a large amount. You also failed to provide to follow basic protocols to send me the petition and didn''t allow to negotiate the cost before the Acnowledgement of Service was sent.


In anycase I am prepared to greatly increase my initial contribution from £205.00 to £600.00 (half the initial that you orginially quoted to your client including VAT). This will be global figure of my contrbution by myself on Decree Absolute being granted. This is far more fair and share the costs equally ­base­d on the initial quote that you made to your client. I have also asked for breakdown of the figure which you have not provided so far.

You could reply with such a letter, but it won''t help you at all. It''s factually incorrect and aggressive.

Firstly - there is no fee for the Petitioner to apply for the Decree Absolute. The fee of £410 paid when the Petition is submitted is a single fee for the divorce process.

You state in your opening post that the only communication between yourself and your spouse is via solicitors - this will have increased the total fees incurred by the Petitioner.

The initial quote is just that - a quote and not a set in stone final figure. Regardless of the length of statement of case in the Petition, the procedure and work is still the same.


You might wish to amend your letter to one that is shorter and less confrontational. You could try negotiating, but there is no guarantee that your "offer" will be accepted - and if you fail to reach an agreement, then the other side will seek costs via the court - and you will have to pay all the £1,610, rather than the conciliatory £1,500 they have put forward.