Baffled !! Section 25 Statement - No such thing!!

In court for Directions and I raised the question of preparing a ''Section 25 Statement'' for Final Hearing as advised.

The Judge said that there was no such thing as a ''Section 25'' Statement and said that the process requires that within 14 days of the hearing the Applicant has to submit an ''Open Statement'' to the respondent with a narrative setting out exactly what is being sought, and the Respondent must within 7 days of the hearing submit their Open Statement. The Judge Quoted Rule 9.28!!

I was under the impression and advised that both sides had to prepare a Section 25 statement setting out their arguments in relation to the Section 25 factors and to mutually exchange the statements at the same time before the hearing?

Who is right? What is a Section 25 statement?, when is it used? because everyone mentions it but the Judge says there is no such thing?

Thank you.

The judge is correct.

S25 statements if used are prepared usually before the first appointment, but this is at the judges discretion, they are probably more common when both parties are acting in person.

Rule 9.28 relates to open offers that both must make no later than seven days before trial.

Thank you. I understand (I think)

In any financial family matter the applicant is require to file and serve their open proposals not less than 14 days before the final hearing according to Family Procedure Rules (FPR) 2010 rule 9.28. Not more than 7 days after service of the open proposal the respondent must file with the court and serve on the applicant an open proposal. An open proposal is a concise document that sets out the amounts involved in the case and what the party proposes as a fair division of these assets. The offers within these open proposals may be accepted at any time up until the final hearing unless withdrawn in writing. The Judge at a final hearing will view the offers made. Therefore the open proposals must be carefully considered both when making and responding to them.

Section 25 is set out in the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. When a court orders statements dealing with Section 25 criteria it seeks that each party set out their case based on various factors that the court has determined to be important. These would include age, earning ability, pension entitlement, life expectancy, care of children etc.

Section 25 statements were rarely ordered as these are quite technical and most often not required.

In 2010 the Family Procedure Rules were introduced. This is effectively the rule book for family proceedings (as the Civil Procedure Rules is for civil proceedings). The law is slow to change and old terminology is still used even when this has a new name (witness the use of ''custody'' instead of ''residence'' and ''access'' instead of ''contact'' despite having changed in 1989).

Section 25 criteria is still valid as is the case law that is used to address the criteria. It''s just that some judges prefer to move with the times in order not to confuse. The judge appears to have had the reverse effect here..

Charles

Sorry Charles and dukey but you''ve baffled me a bit now...

Is a ''section 25'' the same or similar to how I need to present my ''skeleton argument'' on the first day of my FDH?

I''m an L.I.P and my DJ at my FDR stressed to me more than once, that I''d need to come up with a section 25 and also repeated that I needed to ''substantiate'' my court bundle with my section 25.

Confused AddBack.

Section 25 relates to, section 25 (s25) of the marital causes act 1973, it''s law, statute law, so if you see s25 MCA, it''s an abbreviation of the above.

I very much doubt a DJ was asking for a s25 statement this late in the day, probably more that you must base your case on law (s25).

And no they are nothing like a skeleton argument, use the wiki search bar and search skeleton arguments, there are many many posts explaing what they are and how to build one.