Question regarding court admin

Morning guys

After some advice pls, I''ll keep it short.

I received a letter from the court yesterday which basically shows that my stbx had signed the Acknowledgement of Service form back in November. Each time I had checked with the court they told me that they had not received it therefore I amended the Petition and had to have it served twice which a) caused further acrimony b) increased cost and c) has extended the whole process by 6 months unnecessarily.

I''m in the process of writing a letter of complaint and requesting some form of reimbursement. Before I send this off I''d like to know whether it''s worth doing.

Will the court even take my points into consideration? Do they EVER refund if they have made a mistake? Will my response anger the DJ who will be presiding over my case?

Also, in terms of moving the divorce forward is it better to use 2 yr separation or UB as the catalyst, bearing in mind that my stbx can be pretty unreasonable.

Thoughts appreciated.

ME449

Don''t bother. Yes, your complaint will be acknowledged, eventually, but you won''t receive any form of compensation.

Your complaint won''t get to the Judge.

2 years separation requires consent which can be withdrawn at any time. If you have got this far you may as well persevere. If you want to try to build bridges in the process you can withdrawn your claim for costs, assuming that you made one.

Charles

Thanks for responding Charles

Ok, point taken, I''ll leave the complaint, certainly for now but how frustrating!!

Regarding the divorce petition, my stbx has already signed the Acknowledgement of Service form, of which I now have a copy, can she still withdraw at any time?

Personally I''m not fussed what it goes as, I just don''t want any further problems.

The DJ has said one option is to fill in form D80 again and make reference to the amended divorce petition, I can''t see anywhere on the form where I would make this reference.

Thanks again.

ME449

If you have the Acknowledgement of Service you should go ahead and apply for the Decree Nisi as consent can be withdrawn at any point although once given, it is rarely withdrawn.

Form D80B Statement in support of divorce/dissolution/JS is the form to which the DJ refers. Paragraph 2 requests any alterations or additions to the Petition. Alterations or additions are different to amendments which require an amended Petition and further court fee.

On your original point of complaining to the court, the best you will get is an apology as you have suffered no loss. The last time I made a complaint the court had listed a matter for trial, kept the parties waiting around all morning only to say that there was a mix-up in listings and that there were no judge''s available. That cost the client around £4k in wasted fees.

The court said it was a matter of public policy not to award compensation due to a lack of resources and to refer the matter to the maladministration committee if I was unhappy with the decision. I did so and had to chase for a response after several months only to be told that it was a matter of public policy that not to award compensation due to a lack of resources.

Court resources are already stretched and making the court service pay compensation would make the position worse so I understand where they are coming from - there isn''t an endless pot of money for the government to dip into - that''s how we got into this financial crisis in the first place!

Charles

Thanks for your input Charles, most helpful and much appreciated

ME449