Getting The Costs On My Divorce

Hi all....hoping I mmight get some help here with hopefully a few simple questions.

I received my Decree Absolute today having a Nisi and an order for costs issued in my favour on 19 September. I am the petitioner and to date the respondent has not paid any of my costs. I would have been happy with the the £550 standard fee but as there has been no payment and, judging from a couple of texts back and forth where I requested payment, the other side has said they are only going to make a payment of 50% to the court when they get a formal order.

Well to my mind the formal order was the D61 issued as a supplement to the Nisi.

So I am now embarking on the tedious job of getting these costs paid and I am looking at the N252 which I must serve on the respondent.

First question is which court do I enter at the head of the N252. I'm sure it isn't the Liverpool Family Court where the decrees were dealt with....is it the SCCO in London or another court please? I think I have to leave the "Claim No." blank at the moment as that will be issued if and when papers are lodged with the court? I'm hoping the other side will cave in before it gets to that stage!

I'm also going to prepare a bill of costs to include my time at the LIP rate of £19 per hour (I think that is the current rate) and I am aware of the fact that phone calls etc are charged in units of 6 minutes so I think I can cope with that....and also include the cost of getting a copy of the original marriage certificate.

As to the form itself, the first area where a money amount is required says "including the assessment fee".....this I understand is currently £369 if it comes to it. So if my standard court fee already paid is £550 and let's say my other costs are £50 making a total of £600....do I then add the £369 to that figure and insert the total of £969 in that box please?

For the second box near the bottom which mentions an amount, I understand that the default certificate fee is £60 so if my bill is £600, I assume I simply add the £60 to that and insert the sum of £660 in that box?

I appreciate these are very basic questions but us LIPs don't deal with this every day so any kind guidance would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

You are on the right track.

The claim/case number is the same as that used for the divorce.

The correct court is the same court as that which issued the Decree Absolute.

The figure including the assessment fee is as you say - the total of your bill plus the appropriate court fee which would be £369 currently.

At the bottom of the form the figure would be the total of the bill plus the court fee for default costs certificate which is £66 (not £60) and also a fixed fee for preparing and issuing the application for a default costs certificate which is an extra £80.

Other issues:

The bill has to be signed to confirm it is true. The format of the bill is described rather than prescribed so it will be difficult for it to be rejected based on how it looks. The model format is here www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rule.../new-precedent-a.pdf

You will need to add the appropriate certificates at the end of the bill, a guide for which is here www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rule.../new-precedent-f.pdf

It is worthwhile looking through CPR47 and the practice direction to ensure the obvious things are followed. The former is at the following link which also contains a link to the latter www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rule...-detailed-assessment

Ensure you sign the N252 and keep a copy of the signed version as you will need this if you need to apply for a default costs certificate.

When serving the bill you need to send the bill, the signed N252, a copy of the order for costs and any invoices for disbursements (although you won't need these for the marriage certificate fee or the court fees).

Charles

Hi Charles

That's great....thank you so much for the comprehensive reply. Much appreciated.