New here...what is ancillary relief?

I just got divorce papers today; my husband is in the UK where I resided until June 24th. We were married in the UK and lived there together for over six years.

On the back page of the petition it says this:

Ancillary relief:

That the Petitioner (my husband) may be granted the following ancillary relief:

(a) an order for maintenance pending suit


Is he asking me for money?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Good Morning....
Yes..... he has instructed his solicitor to apply for 'maintenance pending suit'....
I don't have time to go into the details, (have to go to work) but.... in short.... it is where one spouse pays the other 'maintenance' until everything gets sorted out.... but there are factors to take into account, eg, length of marriage..... respective incomes etc.
I too have instructed my solicitor to apply for maintenance pending suit....I have been married for 17 years, and my x2b earns considerably more money than I do, so my solicitor says that I should be entitled to 'maintenance pending suit'...
Hope this helps a little...

Good Luck
Karen

scottishlady wrote:

Good Morning....
Yes..... he has instructed his solicitor to apply for 'maintenance pending suit'....
I don't have time to go into the details, (have to go to work) but.... in short.... it is where one spouse pays the other 'maintenance' until everything gets sorted out.... but there are factors to take into account, eg, length of marriage..... respective incomes etc.
I too have instructed my solicitor to apply for maintenance pending suit....I have been married for 17 years, and my x2b earns considerably more money than I do, so my solicitor says that I should be entitled to 'maintenance pending suit'...
Hope this helps a little...

Good Luck
Karen

That's absurd. He always made more money than I did and he got 50% of a 74,000 GBP profit from the sale of our house.

He's not getting a thin dime from me. I'll file from here in Texas; I'm not signing a damned thing from the UK. No, no, no. No way.

Hi disruptivehair,

Some thoughts...

As you were married and lived in UK for 6 years and he still lives in UK (I assume)...then I have to say that as he has already petitioned through the UK courts it seems to me almost certain that the case will proceed through the UK - and that there is very very little chance of you preventing that.

Now...this may not necessarily be such a bad thing...based on your statement that he has always made more money than you.

UK divorce law is quite "socialist" for want of a better term (some may say communist!). In that it looks to share out the assets and income based on "needs" (takes from the rich to give to the poor).

Based on this you can start to get the idea that you will come out badly if you are the higher earner or particularly if he has the greater "needs".

You did not mention kids. If he has stayed behind in UK with a couple of kids then you can expect to be hit for some level of child support.

Has he lost his job? If he has genuinely lost his job and is have trouble getting another this may be the reason for his application for interim maintenance. (Having said that the UK has a pretty good social security system so that should provide his basic needs).


If you replied with a little more detail on your circumstances I could at least offer a view as to whether you have anything to worry about - but don't just ignore this UK divorce and think you can just go ahead and file in Texas cos - sorry , but that just aint gonna work.
(Texas and UK have reciprocal agreement on enforcement of maintenance orders)

A bit more background:

We had been planning to move to the USA together (I'm a US citizen). The day the movers came, he did a runner...I woke up and he was gone. He filed for divorce that day but I did not know that at the time. He deceived me through the course of our marriage about various things, including him quitting his job. He said he had quit his job in preparation for us moving to the USA. He NEVER did.

I called him today (at work) and asked him to explain himself. He claimed to be unaware of any request for money and said it was not his intention to hit me up for maintenance. I told him I was not making any financial claims on him (though I could) and I expected him to not make any on me. He agreed to this. He said he would contact the solicitor to see what the next step would be and he would get back in touch.

To answer some of the other questions:

We have no children (thank god).

We have no joint assets anymore...the sale of our home closed the day after he left and we split the profit 50/50.

He still has the car but I'm willing to just let him keep it and not make any claim on it. I just want to be rid of him.

He is currently employed at the same job where he has been for over 15 years.

He was always the higher earner...by several thousand pounds per year...in the household.

He could just have fallen into the grip of lawyers and has been encouraged to sue first "before she shafts you" (shaft being a legal word taken from the 15th century term for taking advantage of our female-friendly divorce laws:ohmy: ) to earn them nice fees.
Is his getting 50% of the house profit wrong? With no kids I would have expected a 50/50 split even if he has put in more than you from his higher earnings.
IMHO, calm down and then look at things afresh and from both points of view.
Good luck.