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Hi LegalBeagles
A few fairly straight forward questions really (I hope!)
I am helping my sister with her ongoing divorce and have some questions on how to present case law and a differing draft order. I've given a brief background to the case below, so you're not completely shooting in the dark.
Background
My sister and her ex divorced. There are 2 young children. CAO and financial remedy proceedings both progressed to final hearings in 2018.
Last year my sister advised ex that she was moving to Wales at the start of 2020. Instead of mediating, ex filed a PSO, so my sister in turn applied to vary the existing CAO, to sort new arrangements needed to see the father, as he is completely incapable of negotiating like an adult.
Both cases were joined and heard in November. My sister was permitted to move to Wales and the lay judges provided a detailed but flexible framework for contact. My sister's counsel was asked to draw up the order.
All should have been sorted....
Unfortunately, the ex is an outright narcissist and will do anything to hurt, vex and distress my sister. So of course, he and his solicitors hijacked the order drafting process and started demanding new terms be inserted in his favour. Terms that had never been discussed at court.
This has led to a further hearing being listed, which is going to be handled remotely next month.
Now
I'm beginning to compile all of the necessary documentation for the hearing. He will be represented by his solicitor. My sister disinstructed her solicitor, due to never ending costs of the ex dragging this out.
The directions order sent about the upcoming hearing were really short on detail compared to in the previous proceedings. The order states his solicitor must electronically file a PDF bundle, including :
a) Case summary and chronology
b) Parties' position statements
c) Previous orders that are relevant
d) All essential documents that the court requires to determine the issues
e) A draft order
Looking at this list, it seems my sister only needs to provide a single position statement! Bearing in mind that the position statement is fairly brief and lacks detail, I'm not sure how my sister could be expected to build a winning case based off of two pages alone?? That said, the ex will never put adequate "essential documentation" in to support my case (point d)), so we are expecting to create an "unagreed bundle" on all the misc documents on which my sister intends to rely.
My Questions
1) I have found pertinent case law online to which my sister will be referring. I can see online case law would usually go in a skeleton argument and an authorities bundle, but I assume both are overkill for a litigant in person to produce. As such, I have the following questions :
> Where should case law be included by a litigant in person?
> Should it be presented in a narrative way or just a simple list of case names with the relevant paragraphs copied out?
> If it should be included in a narrative way, can it go in the position statement? (As I mentioned above, I thought that should be kept brief and void of granular details).
> If it should be provided as a list in a separate document, should that document go in to our "unagreed bundle" or should it be sent to the other side to include in the agreed bundle somewhere?
> Do lists of authorities have any special procedural requirements that must be adhered to, such as needing to be filed and served XXX number of days before the hearing?
2) point "e)" says a draft order should be provided. Given the opposing views on many aspects, the draft order ex's solicitor submits and the one my sister would like to submit will undoubtedly be quite different. I presume it would be fine to provide my sister's own version of a final draft order in our unagreed bundle? Or should that go in the agreed bundle too, so the Judge can compare the two easily from the same bundle?
Other questions may pop in my head based on any replies, but I think this is it for now
I hope I've posted this in the right place, but if not I apologise in advance.
I look forward to hearing from you guys and appreciate any help you can offer
Regards
Alex
A few fairly straight forward questions really (I hope!)
I am helping my sister with her ongoing divorce and have some questions on how to present case law and a differing draft order. I've given a brief background to the case below, so you're not completely shooting in the dark.
Background
My sister and her ex divorced. There are 2 young children. CAO and financial remedy proceedings both progressed to final hearings in 2018.
Last year my sister advised ex that she was moving to Wales at the start of 2020. Instead of mediating, ex filed a PSO, so my sister in turn applied to vary the existing CAO, to sort new arrangements needed to see the father, as he is completely incapable of negotiating like an adult.
Both cases were joined and heard in November. My sister was permitted to move to Wales and the lay judges provided a detailed but flexible framework for contact. My sister's counsel was asked to draw up the order.
All should have been sorted....
Unfortunately, the ex is an outright narcissist and will do anything to hurt, vex and distress my sister. So of course, he and his solicitors hijacked the order drafting process and started demanding new terms be inserted in his favour. Terms that had never been discussed at court.
This has led to a further hearing being listed, which is going to be handled remotely next month.
Now
I'm beginning to compile all of the necessary documentation for the hearing. He will be represented by his solicitor. My sister disinstructed her solicitor, due to never ending costs of the ex dragging this out.
The directions order sent about the upcoming hearing were really short on detail compared to in the previous proceedings. The order states his solicitor must electronically file a PDF bundle, including :
a) Case summary and chronology
b) Parties' position statements
c) Previous orders that are relevant
d) All essential documents that the court requires to determine the issues
e) A draft order
Looking at this list, it seems my sister only needs to provide a single position statement! Bearing in mind that the position statement is fairly brief and lacks detail, I'm not sure how my sister could be expected to build a winning case based off of two pages alone?? That said, the ex will never put adequate "essential documentation" in to support my case (point d)), so we are expecting to create an "unagreed bundle" on all the misc documents on which my sister intends to rely.
My Questions
1) I have found pertinent case law online to which my sister will be referring. I can see online case law would usually go in a skeleton argument and an authorities bundle, but I assume both are overkill for a litigant in person to produce. As such, I have the following questions :
> Where should case law be included by a litigant in person?
> Should it be presented in a narrative way or just a simple list of case names with the relevant paragraphs copied out?
> If it should be included in a narrative way, can it go in the position statement? (As I mentioned above, I thought that should be kept brief and void of granular details).
> If it should be provided as a list in a separate document, should that document go in to our "unagreed bundle" or should it be sent to the other side to include in the agreed bundle somewhere?
> Do lists of authorities have any special procedural requirements that must be adhered to, such as needing to be filed and served XXX number of days before the hearing?
2) point "e)" says a draft order should be provided. Given the opposing views on many aspects, the draft order ex's solicitor submits and the one my sister would like to submit will undoubtedly be quite different. I presume it would be fine to provide my sister's own version of a final draft order in our unagreed bundle? Or should that go in the agreed bundle too, so the Judge can compare the two easily from the same bundle?
Other questions may pop in my head based on any replies, but I think this is it for now
I hope I've posted this in the right place, but if not I apologise in advance.
I look forward to hearing from you guys and appreciate any help you can offer
Regards
Alex
