This workplan details everything you need to do as a Litigant In Person during the first phase of Financial Remedy proceedings, including a schedule of all the documents that you need to prepare as well as other actions that you need to complete.
[Previous Step - If you are respondent there is no previous step. If you are the applicant then the previous step was "Applying To Court For A Financial Order"]
After receiving and processing a Form A application from the applicant, the court sends a "Notice Of Proceedings" to both parties to notify them that they are required to participate in Financial Remedy court proceedings.
This workplan outlines all the steps you need to take between receiving this "Notice Of Proceedings" and attending the first court hearing know as a First Directions Appointment.
1) Allocating Case to an appropriate Court and Judge
Court cases to decide on fair financial settlements related to divorce are know as Financial Remedy cases.
There is a specialised sub-section of the Family Court system called the Financial Remedies Courts which handles these Financial Remedy cases.
Financial Remedy cases are by default allocated to be heard by a District Judge within the Financial Remedies Courts.
If your case is a very high value case or is a complex case then you can apply for your case to be allocated to a higher court or a more specialised judge by completing an optional Allocation Questionnaire.
The guidelines for Case allocation state that cases should be allocated as follows:
- cases with over £15 million in assets or over £1 million in income are referred to a High Court judge.
- other complex cases should be allocated to a District Judge who is qualified to hear complex cases.
- all other cases should be allocated to a District Judge.
The full Case Allocation Guide and Allocation Questionnaire is available on the judiciary.uk website.
2) Applicant vs Respondent Responsibilities
From this point onwards the applicant and respondent have broadly the same list of documents to produce.
However, the applicant does have a couple of additional responsibilities/tasks, most notably:
- taking the lead on joint documents (e.g. ES1, ES2, Composite Chronology).
- producing the court bundle.
If the applicant is a litigant in person (LIP) and the respondent has a solicitor, then the respondent solicitor takes over the responsibility for the above two areas. If both parties are LIPs or both have solicitors then the responsibility remains with the applicant.
In all cases it is a good idea to communicate with the other party to make sure both sides are clear on who is taking on this responsibility.
We will point out them when we get to them, further down this guide.
3) Read the Notice Of Proceedings
You should read the Notice Of Proceedings carefully and make a note of all of the tasks that the court is ordering you to do.
The court is not asking you to consider doing these tasks, the court is ordering you to do them.
You must comply with the court order, there could be serious consequences and penalties if you do not.
We recommend that you make an effort to get organised and create a workplan, to enable you to produce all of the documents that the court is requesting by the specified due dates.
To assist
Put the date of the First Directions Appointment in your diary
the most import thing to do is make a note of the scheduled date of the first court hearing, which is called the First Directions Appointment (FDA).
You are required by the court to produce a number of documents in advance of this hearing.
Step 1) 35 days before the FDA hearing:
Form E
Each party is required to complete Form E, a comprehensive financial disclosure document.
The courts usually specify, in the paperwork they send you, a specific date on which you should exchange Form E with the other side.
On that date you need to file (send a copy to the court) and serve (send a copy to the other party) Form E.
Step 2) 14 days before the FDA hearing:
Notice in Form G
This is a single page document that the court send you as part of the Notice of Proceedings.
It contains a single sentence within which you have to cross out some words to indicate whether or not you wish to skip the normal First Directions Appointment and skip to the second hearing (called a Financial Dispute Resolution Hearing).
(FDA) Form A - Financial Application
(FDA) FRC3 - Allocation Questionnaire
(FDA) Form E - Financial Statement
(FDA) Form G - Notice of Response
(FDA) Questionnaire
(FDA) Property Valuations
(FDA) Property Particulars
(FDA) Mortgage Capacity
(FDA) Mortgage Capacity (Other Party)
(FDA) Notify Mortgagees
(FDA) Court Bundle
(FDA) ES1 - Composite Case Summary
(FDA) ES2 - Composite Asset Schedule
(FDA) Position Statement
(FDA) Form H - Estimate of Costs
(FDA) Other - see notes
