Appeal costs - who pays

Hi, my sister recently divorced - judges'' decision of a Clean Break settlement was agreed beginning of Dec 2012. She got the marital home and a small sum of money; the Stbx accepted the judges decision and said he wouldn''t appeal. He was ordered to move out of the marital home by a specified date and did so.

Now he has changed his mind and is appealing - 2 days after the 21 day window to appeal. This was allowed due to the Christmas holiday period and so it is also going to a different judge because of this.

He has stated in his appeal statement that he has moved out of the marital home. Could he be allowed to return now, is it within his rights due to the appeal?
Will my sister have to cover her solicitor costs/court costs as he has now cut her living allowance and she has no other income? Does she even have to be involved in the appeal or present at that time?

The financial part of the settlement was held up over the holiday period and so she has nothing left after her final court costs.There are no children from this marriage.

I''m a bit confused. Either the settlement was agreed "by consent" or an order of the court was imposed by the judge. A Consent Order would be extremely difficult to set aside because there would be no court decision based on fact or law or merits.

The divorce went to FDR (4 days in court) and then 2 weeks later the final division of the assets was decided by the judge. They both signed their agreement after that and 2 weeks later he moved out of the marital home.

Sorry if this is all a bit vague; I only got the news tonight and my sister is devastated and I''m not getting much sense out of her tonight over the phone. Will try again in the morning. Unfortunately we live too far apart for me to just nip round there.

It does sound a little odd, I can understand Fiona''s confusion.

A judge at FDR cannot hand down a judgement, in other words the judge says well this is what I say will happen.

You then say a judge decided shortly after and they both signed an order, again this cannot happen,

If a judge decides neither sign its a judgement

If both sign, it''s not a judgement it''s a consensual agreement

For others to help you need to find out what actually happened.

I doubt very much this is actually a judgement, no way would a final hearing have been listed weeks after an FDR, it''s usually three months or more.

Try and find out as much as you can.

Thanks all the quick responses. The FDR was held over 4 days 25th Oct - 1st Nov. The Judges'' decision was given on 14th Dec. The husband was asked if he wished to appeal and he declined. I don''t honestly know if they had things to sign. But I will get as much info as I can tomorrow if she is in any fit state. Her solicitor wants to meet with her, I may try and go with her to gleen what I can. I''ll keep you posted.

I know this must be a totally strange situation for you, bear with us and we''ll try and break this down.

No judge at FDR can decide what will happen, all they can do is offer an opinion, only a judge at a final hearing can say what will happen.

Honestly best guess this was a final hearing and not and FDR, also judges don''t ask would you like to appeal, it just doesn''t happen, from time to time a judge may explain to a person without any legal help what they should do if they don''t like the final outcome, they certainly don''t invite appeal though.

Whatever this was FDR or FH to be listed for four days tells us this is very complicated indeed, hearings of four days are quite rare, I can''t even think of the last one on wiki to last four days.

Perhaps when your sister is a little more composed you both can talk, facts are what we need, maybe even call the wiki line and see if they can help.