Decree denied

Hi

I''m looking for some advice please:

My Husband was married once (well actually twice) before, and has 2 children from his previous marriage, aged 17 an 15. I''m not sure if I filled in the original forms correctly, but I added these 2 children under the ''children of the family'' part of the form.

I''ve now just had a letter from the court saying i''m not entitled to a Decree because there is no statement of arrangements for the children, and asking if the older one is still in education.

But ... these children are officially nothing to do with me, I am on amicable terms with my ex so I know the eldest is in education, but if I wasn''t - how would I know? And there are no arrangements as they are not my children.

I''ve been asked ''The Petitioner should deal with the above matters and renew the request for Directions for trial'' ... does that mean I have to fill in the forms again and take them to be endorsed at the Court again, or can I just send a letter?

Hope someone can help!

Thanks

yes, the problem is with the original form, you should have put the children in the ''children who are not children of the family'' section. Children of the family would normally be children who live with you, even if they are not your children.

You may be able to deal with it by doing a fresh D80. In response to Q2 which asks whether you wish to add or alter anything put in smething to say that you wish to alter the detials of the children, that they did not form part of you & your husband''s household and were not treated as children of the family and there details should have appeared in the ''children who are not children of the family'' section of the Petition. You may wish to add that the childnre have no contact with you and that you have no information about the contact between the childnre and their father.


If this is not the case - if they were childre of the family, becaue they lived with you or soent substantial amounts of time with you, then you will need to do a statement of arrangments for children - this would mean amendng and re-issuing the Petition and a further court fee will be payable.

thanks very much ... the D80 sounds like the way to go.

We only saw the children once a month, plus every other christmas and once a week for a holiday.

Thakns for your reply - much appreciated!

Hi again

Just dug out all the copies of my forms and I did fill in the form correctly - i.e. the children were listed as children of either party who are not children of the family ... so very confused as to why they need to know what my arrangements are for the children .... shall i just write back to them and say there are no arrangements as the children do not belong to me and i have no knowledge as to whether they are still in education??

knew this was all going to well