ex has filed inaccurate E2

Good morning. Ahead of first appointment my ex (the applicant) has filed an E2 that is incomplete and inaccurate. On close examination you can see that there are numerous large sums of money passing through bank accounts that are unaccounted for, a missing bank statement(account summary shows several £1000s passed through the account in that period). The sourc of this money is not declared and nor its destination. It is simply not mentioned. I have listed all this in my questionnaire. But how do you think the court will view this? Is there anything else I should be doing or saying now that I have spotted these sums. As I say I have listed all in my questionnaire.Hearing is next week. Many thanks, SP

I would say you have done the right thing and would hope the court takes the same view as you - mysteriously missing bank statement, no explanation for sums withdrawn, inaccuracies abound.

Good luck and let us know what the court does say especially as you have put in questions to answer.

Before the First Appointment and after having swapped E2s with my wife''s lawyer, I submitted a questionnaire.

Wife''s lawyer replied and plugged the gaps, in the process revealing accounts that had not been revealed before, accounting for considerable sums (in this case) of money heading my wife''s way.

However at the First Appointment the judge was not concerned about the manner of disclosure and just wanted to be sure that all the facts were now on the table.

I think at the FDR the process will be more concerned with scrutinising the evidence and more likely to take into account the manner of disclosure.

Am I right?

(Certainly wife''s lawyer is keen to avoid FDR as he suggested to judge we move straight to final hearing - on the grounds that I am representing myself and may not appreciate the process. The judge ignored him and ordered FDR)

Without becoming either agressive or defensive it is up to you now to examine the previously undisclosed evidence regarding your wifes finance - the nature of the money coming her way and whether it in any way prejudices your claim in financial remedy.

Plugging the gaps is not necessarily wrong but not necessarily right and if a person has nothing to hide then there is no reason to fail to disclose what has now come to light.

So you need to prepare and think of the consequences of the original consealment - whether in consealing and failing to disclose (which is the objective) that there was cause for your wife to be stopping proper adjucication (the subjective). In legal terms that is the Actus Reus and the Mens Res (the act and any intention behind the act)

I would point out once that your wifes legal team tried to get straight to a final hearing but the judge ignored this and ordered an FDR.

Make sure at this point you have an offer on the table of what you believe to be a sensible settlement in your case and ask the judge for Directions as to what the court would feel reasonable under the circumstances for a settlement. It may be that you can do the negotiations both in court that day and in the court corridors with her legal team.

The non disclosure and the FDR does give you leverage to get this finalised. The other legal team will know they are backfooted and now want this over.

In family proceedings as you know both parties bear their own costs. However, as you are self repping you can put in a schedule of costs based on self litigant rules and the amount per hour has gone up to something like £14 (check that out not sure used to be £9 or something like that).

You might not want to attempt claiming litigant costs for litigation misconduct, be careful if the non disclosure is not marital assets, ie a bonus not yet received, or a pay not yet received or an inheritance not yet received (these are not marital assets) then litigation costs are not appropriate.

However, if she has concealed information and been dishonest about her finance, caused you stress and work and wasting court time then I believe you could claim litigation costs and may be successful.

The time to ask is if you get into court and once you have adjudication by the judge - if it goes in your favour on evidence and law then you can ask for your litigation costs to be paid by the other party.