Service of court documents overseas

[benjus]

Hi all... I'm new to this forum so please be gentle!

I'm not sure if this question is specific to family law, but in this case it applies to family law so I'll post it here.

Background: about 3-4 years ago I instructed a solicitor to petition for divorce from my then-wife. This dragged on for some time but the Decree Absolute was finally pronounced in April 2012. Our financial settlement, including spousal and child maintenance, was put in a Consent Order and sealed by the court.

There has now been a change of circumstances and the same solicitor has advised me to apply for a variation of the order to reduce my maintenance payments. I have tried to discuss this with my ex-wife but she is not co-operating. I cannot afford to spend thousands again on legal fees, and the solicitor has said that she considers me perfectly capable of taking this to court representing myself.

However, my ex-wife lives in Bolivia. During the divorce process my solicitor looked into the possibility of using the "official" process (not sure what it's correctly called) of serving court documents overseas, but was quoted about 6 months. To expedite the process she obtained court approval to serve documents by email and courier. I would want to do the same thing, but have no idea how to go about it. Can anyone advise?

Thanks

Ben

[Tools]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

Hi Ben and welcome to the forum.

First of all do you have an address for service of documents, to your ex in Bolivia (her current address), her email address, telephone number etc.

Are you in regular contact with your ex and child/children.

Can you explain further the change of circumstances, wage reduction, loss of employment, new partner/children etc

[benjus]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

Hi Ben and welcome to the forum.

First of all do you have an address for service of documents, to your ex in Bolivia (her current address), her email address, telephone number etc.

Are you in regular contact with your ex and child/children.

Can you explain further the change of circumstances, wage reduction, loss of employment, new partner/children etc

Hi Tools, thanks for your reply.

Yes, I have her home address, email address and telephone number and we are in regular contact.

The change of circumstances is that she is now apparently cohabiting with a new partner and they have a child together (she kept this secret from me for at least 18 months, including instructing our children not to tell me about her new child). My solicitor's advice is to apply to terminate or at least reduce the spousal maintenance payments and to reduce the child maintenance payments to align with the CSA formula. When my ex-wife filled in the forms during the divorce process she made it appear that she was a single parent of limited means with no intention of remarrying or cohabiting - then about 6 months later she would have been pregnant. I have remarried myself and we are considering having children, so aligning the child maintenance with the CSA formula would make any future adjustment to account for my new children automatic rather than requiring another court application.

[Tools]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

If you have the address then I would assume you could simply send the documents recorded delivery and signed for. Whether that be using Royal Mail, UPS Fed-Ex etc, whichever service you feel the most reliable that will provide you with the evidence needed to prove the documents have been served. To accompany this, I would suggest also sending via email, confirming that a paper copy is to follow.

[stevemLS]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

There are special rules for service outside the jurisdiction. Practice Direction 6B covers it - have a look at it here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pro...t06/pd_part06b

I would say your application to vary is in effect a "new claim"- so permission would be required.

[benjus]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

If you have the address then I would assume you could simply send the documents recorded delivery and signed for. Whether that be using Royal Mail, UPS Fed-Ex etc, whichever service you feel the most reliable that will provide you with the evidence needed to prove the documents have been served. To accompany this, I would suggest also sending via email, confirming that a paper copy is to follow.

Interesting - thanks.

I've been trawling through my correspondence with the solicitor during the divorce process, and I have found a paragraph stating that the documents should be served via the court's Foreign Process Section, and that in order to circumvent this she had to obtain the court's permission providing justification and evidence that the email address is in use.

Do you know why this would have been the case? Perhaps because the divorce petition is a more critical document than other court papers? Or has the process changed? Maybe she was just being ultra-cautious, but I'd be wary of serving documents by email & courier without special permission unless I understand why permission was requested before and why it's not required in this case.

[Tools]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

That sounds to me that it was more for ease of response on her part. If you are in any doubt then I recommend you speak with your solicitor again to clarify or contact The Law Society.

[benjus]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

There are special rules for service outside the jurisdiction. Practice Direction 6B covers it - have a look at it here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pro...t06/pd_part06b

I would say your application to vary is in effect a "new claim"- so permission would be required.

Thanks Steve

Is there an beginner's guide to the procedure for getting permission anywhere?

[Tools]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

Sorry Steve missed your post

[benjus]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

btw I did ask the solicitor - her response was "well, that could be tricky - maybe you should let us file the case for you, then you can de-instruct us and proceed by yourself.

But I'd rather do it alone from the outset if possible.

[stevemLS]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

I can't find one, sorry. Look at CPR6.37 http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/pro...es/part06#6.37

In the absence of anything else, I think you would just complete a General Application.

This isn't my area so I may be talking rubbish. I think you would need to issue an Application for Alteration to Maintenance Agreement (Form D50H) and then apply for permission to serve outside the jurisdiction on a general application (Form N244).

This appears to me to be a complex area and I think you should at least get some initial advice from someone who knows what they are talking about!

To find the forms google HMCTS Form Finder.

Recorded delivery and email would not be good service though.

[stevemLS]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

There is no reason why you can't get the solicitor to give you procedural advice, help complete the forms and then file yourself as a litigant in person.

They may be reluctant to act on that basis - no money in it!

[Tools]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

This appears to me to be a complex area and I think you should at least get some initial advice from someone who knows what they are talking about!

To find the forms google HMCTS Form Finder.

Recorded delivery and email would not be good service though.

I do agree Steve, I can see now my suggestion wasn't really enough for what is needed

[benjus]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

In case anyone is interested, I took stevemLS's advice and my lawyer agreed to give me procedural advice while I represented myself.

The actual procedure was to present the application to vary the maintenance order (Form A) together with a Form D11 for a without-notice application describing the situation and requesting the court's permission to perform service myself by email and courier, and a draft court order setting out my undertakings to the court to perfrom the service (my lawyer drafted these for me). I had hoped to present the D11 to a judge in person to get immediate approval (at my lawyer's advice), but the court officials wouldn't let me do that - so it took about 10 days for the D11 to be approved by a district judge and another 10 days or so for the order to be made.

Anyway, I am now in possession of the order allowing me to serve the court papers myself and a date for a court hearing.

[Amethyst]

Re: Service of court documents overseas

Thanks for coming back benjus - I think that is a kind of service many people could do with.... I know I could, almost daily, for others.

How much (if you don't mind me asking) around abouts did he charge you for procedural input?