Self repping / serving case bundle / both LIPs

I am the respondent in a long drawn out divorce.
Marriage of 34 months (less than 3 yrs) and no children. No co-habiting period. I have a house wth some equity (though solely in my name and no evidence of ex contributing). Ex had more assets (cash and gold jewellary) but the cash has mysteriously disappeared and she claims there is no gold jewellary in existenace).

Ex wife and i will both be LIP for final hearing scheduled for later in the month.

Ex has produced a small bundle consisting of 20 pages but did not check with me in regards to my position etc (my paperwork).She has not included a simple enough Sec 25 statement, nor has she included any challenges/questions.

I wasnt confident ex would produce a bundle, so I have produced my own and i have included her position statement within mine. Mine includes my case summary, her position statement, my position statement, my Sec 25 statement, skeleton argument etc. My file runs into 75 pages including actual evidence of her bank statements with her cash assets, huose insurance showing jewellary in a joint policy, email sent to her to confirm this, photos of her wearing jewellary, house deeds, mortgage statements etc etc.

Petitioner (ex) was instructed to prepare a bundle which she has done but it hasnt been agreed - she has just sent it minus my evidence/case material.

As she has already filed her bundle to the courts online, where do I stand?

With this in mind, can I submit my case bundle and explain reasons why I have had to do this? The case is scheduled in around 10 days time.

Will I also need to serve my case bundle on my ex? If so, do i serve everything or can I hold certain things back - for example, she denies having assets worth £15k (gold jewellary) but I have found some house insurance which confirms this asset existed. Thats something I clearly want to suprise her with at Court to show her dishonesty. Her other acts of dishonesty including not making an initial full disclosure at a mediation claiming she had only £80 to her name..........but by the second mediation session following a direction for bank statements, she suddenly confirmed she had £24k in cash but stated had spent it on day to day.

I'd be extremely grateful for any immediate responses as I would like to submit my case bundle today.

My gut feeling is, as she hasnt agreed and requested my documents and I havent agreed to her bundle content and importantly she has already filed it via email 2 days ago, I feel I have every right to file my own comprehensive bundle. The other question remains, do I serve my bundle upon her also?

Oh, almost forgot. The Judge at 2nd FDR suggested this issue was down to matrimonial home value only. However, I advised the Judge then she had similar assets in cash and we should go our own seperate ways - Clean Break. However, she suggested a sky high house valuation but it has subsequently come back lower than we both expected. There is no mention in the FDRs about lack of jewellary - the Judge read some of my questions and said that could be decided at the Final Hearing. As a result, is everything back on the table - ie assets wise including which have not been disclosed by ex on form E? (ie her gold jewellary and her missing £24k approx cash).........or will the Judge just use the info from FDR and say its a matrimonial house issue. My full case file alludes to her cash assets which have disappeared and significant value of gold jewellary.

Bundles need to be prepared in accordance with practice direction 27A. This sets out what should, and should not, be included. There should be both Forms E, without attachments, copies of witness statements, orders of the court, answers to questionnaires etc. There should also be a case summary and statement of issues, ideally agreed. If not agreed there may be two version of the Statement of issues.

She should have produced an index for you to review and provided the opportunity for you to request that certain documents are included. Everything needs to be indexed and paginated to make it easy for the judge to follow.

Any evidence on which you intend to rely must be served on her in good time ahead of the hearing. There should be scope for providing updating disclosure.

Have a look at the FDR order. Does it set out a time line for preparing for FH?? NB At the moment everything is being done electronically.

If you are going to produce a proper bundle, including her documents as well as yours, adhering to Practice 27A, you need to share the index with her, seek agreement on the summary and statement of issues and ask the judge for permission to use your bundle.

If the bundle(s) are insufficient, the judge may not allow the hearing to go ahead.

Have you had any legal advice on your position? With a short childless marriage where both parties can be self sufficient, the rule of thumb is that you take out what you put in and divide any profits or liabilities of the marriage 50:50. This would include any increase in house value. A new valuation should be sought and included in updated disclosure. The value of the property in light of Covid 19 should be included in the Statement of Issues.

We have a range of services for Litigants in Person that you may find useful. Give the helpline a call.

Hadenoughnow

Thank you so much for the ultra quick response hadenoughnow.

I have emailed the ex informing her of her responsibilities in producing a case bundle inclusive of my evidence.

You may want to take the precaution of producing your own bundle (in line with pd27a) as a back up, especially if there is important evidence you wish to rely on in court. If she hasn't produced one in the required time frame you can send yours in and share with her.

Two bundles is not ideal. However, the important thing is that the judge should be able to understand the case and navigating the evidence is straightforward..

Hi Broken Soul,

How did the FH go for you? Please can you share the outcome.

Hi gopher5,

Unfortunately due to COVID19, there was no outcome in April 2020. That said, there was an option for Virtual Court Hearing but due to our case not being suitable and me requesting a witness consideration from the exes side, the Judge ruled this was not suitable for a virtual hearing.

Again, based on the bundles we submitted, no decision could be made which I am glad about. Part of my submission was the ex claiming she no longer has any of the assets, which on the balance of probability I have proven otherwise. so I hope this can be taken into consideration.

We were then asked to submit a 2 page position report which was done in April. Since then I have not heard anything - I have emailed the Family Court a week ago but I still haven't had any response.

It's been over two years now since the seperation and feel frustrated this is still lingering. I hope to have an outcome soon.

Hi all,

I felt like I had a duty to come back and explain the outcome of my recent case. It had take 3 years to get to the Final Hearing and we were both admonished by the Judge, and rightly so, in regards to how long this case took, given its relative simplicity.

My position was I had a property prior to marriage and the ex moved into the family home (with my parents). There were no contributions and she worked and kept all her income/savings. She decided to quit the marriage and then wanted half of everything despite this being a 34 month childless marriage (short term). I had approx £24k equity (solely built by me during the course of those 34 months) and she genuinely contributed nothing - only paid for her own expenses. She herself had £24k savings when she left but claimed she had spent this on living costs within a year. She also had £15k worth of gold jewellary (third given by my family, and two thirds was her own). I submitted to the courts we have a clean break order and she retains what she has minus the jewellary my family gave as a dowry. She said none of her property was part of the matrimonial pot (denied existence of jewellary despite reciepts, house insurance docs, wedding photos and two witnesses attending and testifying to this) and claimed her money had disappeared.

In the end, despite being religious, she failed to swear on the holy book and instead affirmed. Myself and my witnesses swore on the holy book. She lied on the stand and also ensured her family member did not attend Court (long story) despite being summonsed.

The Judge reviewed the case and essentially accepted a Clean Break Order and approx £9k had to be paid to the ex. I believe this was on the grounds of my earning capacity being double of hers. In the end, my equity cannot be touched (which i served before, during, after marriage) and the pension is off the table given short term marriage.

I am unable to comprehend how despite the strength of evidence of jewellary and cash, the Judge was dismissive of the jewellary. I care not about the jewellary but my point was she has been lying about the existance. I had to hold my tongue on numerous occasions, but when I had the opportunity, it was my duty to highlight the inaccuracies and lies being told. I was not able to cross examine - I have prepared a questionnaire which Judge went through. Mostly, it was fair and I felt the Judge had a good grasp of the case, but was dismissive towards me. Maybe it was because I respectfully spoke my mind.

It could have been worse. I self repped and prepared a bundle with evidential documents. I had little engagement with the ex as she was unable to follow the agree and follow the procedural rules.

As soon as I pay the agreed amount, I'll get my Clean Break Order and will be good riddance. What really strikes me is and what some may think is it matters not what oath the ex took (religious or affirmation). I will be in agreement with this - but for a religious person, their holy affirmation should come first if they are truly prepared to tell the truth. By affirming, and stil lying on oath, the ex is guilty of perjury and sadly, the Courts fell for it. Regardless, there is the Court of Conscience - I can live with myself happily, told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Sadly, the ex did not do the same and she will have to live it.

Good luck to everyone out there and a massive thanks to all those responded and provided advice. The Wiki Community is awesome.