What happens if stbx still hasn't properly completed his Form E by the finance FDR?

[thisishard2]

2nd hearing in about 5 weeks. Ex's first Form E was missing a lot of info including bank statements. My solicitor asked for all the info in our questionnaire. Ex has provided some answers and says that's everything - amongst other things, the statements are still missing. He is very very stubborn and can be very rude and difficult.

So my question is, how will the judge at the FDR be able to advise without all the relevant information?

I'm not an expert but the judge might order that he provides the information by a certain date. Hopefully MrsBert will be along soon to correct me if I'm wrong!

Thank you.

The thing is that the he has already been ordered to produce the info at the 1st hearing. I was hoping we can avoid the second hearing all together, but it looks like we won't even be able to come to an agreement at court, and this is all stressful and expensive. Which I suppose may be what H is banking on. No pun intended.

Does anyone else know what might happen?

In my case, my solicitors asked and asked and he came back with flimsy excuses and half truths on spending throughout. They were obviously lies. The solicitors kept pursuing, we got to court and the judge just flicked past those questions with zero interest in questioning him about these.

Ultimately it cost me a fortune to pursue and I saw that the courts have very few powers that they would be willing to exercise to force full disclosure. In hindsight I wish I hadn’t bothered pursing the truth so avidly.

I am also worried about this namechanger. It being a pointless waste of money pursuing it endlessly. Were you happy with overall outcome?

Though I thought that the courts can threaten imprisonment (draconian I know and would make an already non-existent co-parenting relationship even more non-existent).

Your solicitor no doubt has a plan.

Depending on what is missing a bit, mine might include

1. Prepare a schedule of deficiencies setting out what is still missing
2. Bang in an application for an order that he reply in a fixed time
3. Plus a request that a penal notice be attached to that order
4. And for an order that he be responsible for the costs of the application plus of service of the order
5. Also ask to adjourn the FAR until replies are in.

If the hearing goes ahead and fails because of his non disclosure seek costs of that hearing to be paid by him.

HOWEVER

It may be that what is missing isn't essential to allow an FDR to be effective. Divorce cases never reach court in a perfect state and parties and lawyers have to be realistic and practical about this. Listen to your solicitor's views.

Thanks MrsBert - yes my solicitor has already said she will send H a schedule of what is missing. The biggest thing that I am aware of are all his bank statements. When we first exchanged forms, he gave us an Excel spreadsheet that he had produced, rather than the actual statements, and it was for last tax year rather than up to when the exchange took place.

In the replies to the questionnaire, still no statements. So I can only think that there are transactions that he doesn't want us to see. Or he can't be bothered to print them out .

2. Bang in an application for an order that he reply in a fixed time
3. Plus a request that a penal notice be attached to that order
4. And for an order that he be responsible for the costs of the application plus of service of the order

The thing about this is that I think H would make my life hell - we are still in the same house but completely estranged.

Also, I somehow can't see my solicitor doing this, though to be fair we haven't got that far yet. We are still trying to gather valuations. But the hearing is now 22 days away .

Even the fdr costs to be paid by ex due to his causing its failure, would cause a volcanic reaction and make things very hard for me. He is completely irrational and can be bullying and very unpleasant. He has made all of this much harder than it needed to be, yet he is terrified that he is going to be liable for some of my costs.

Divorce cases never reach court in a perfect state and parties and lawyers have to be realistic and practical about this. Listen to your solicitor's views.

I will listen to her - I trust her and she is great. But the missing statements may mean the difference between my being able to stay in the fmh or not (for all I know). It also riles me that H thinks he can get away with only producing the information he wants to. He is deeply contemptuous of the whole thing.

Come to think of it, my solicitor did mention the possibility of a penal notice. It would depend on how important we thought the missing information is.

But how do you co-habit with someone whom you already find verbally intimidating, and essentially threaten them with prison?

Would you pursue missing bank statements MrsBert? I guess it would depend on the context?

There are definitely some hidden things (and some which we are not pursuing as we know H would just deny their existence) but they could be to the tune of a small amount of money relatively speaking. The problem is not knowing.

Are you for real serena? Reported.