Financial Remedy Proceedings:
If you have not been able to reach agreement with your spouse, then a formal application will need to be made to the court to commence financial remedy proceedings.
The application initiates the court process, and once it has been processed by the court a hearing date will be set in place.
This initial hearing is known as the First Directions Appointment (FDA).
A set timetable of events is then scheduled to assist the parties to prepare for the FDA:
- Each party must prepare a financial statement known as a Form E. This is the document used to give financial disclosure.
- The Forms E will be exchanged between the parties.
- The Forms E will be examined and if there is missing, incomplete or questionable information spotted within the form, a questionnaire and request for further information can be produced.
- In advance of the FDA each party must also prepare a concise statement of issues and a chronology of events.
- A further document must also be produced to outline to the court whether the case can be accelerated to the next stage of the proceedings (discussed below). This usually only occurs if the issues between the parties are extremely narrow and when there are very few questions being raised as to the financial disclosure that has been exchanged.
The FDA hearing:
At this hearing the court will set down further directions that will need to be complied with by the parties. For instance:
- How assets are to be valued.
- Which parts of the questionnaires need to be answered and by when.
This hearing is essentially a timetabling exercise, setting down further tasks for each party to comply with in the hope of further narrowing the issues, working towards settlement.
The FDA hearing is sometimes described as “to set out the steps a court needs everyone to take to get to the second hearing.”
The next step in the process will be the Financial Dispute Resolution hearing.