Inside the family court what happens?

[smiler01]

Hi

Not sure if the title is quite correct but just wanted to ask something.

My partner is representing himself and I understand on the day of the hearing in the court waiting room his ex's barrister will go between the ex and my partner to try to reach an agreement for the judge to rubber stamp and if nothing can be agreed they would neec to go before the judge - is that correct?

If so, if her barrister puts a suggestion of the next stage to him and it's not quite what he wanted but obv wants to consider it is it ok for him to take a few mins to discuss it with me to work out if he's happy to accept or is that seen as rude etc?? I would assume this is ok to do but at the last hearing she was very pushy and she was like this Is what were offering I'll get it written up without much time for him to acknowledge it all and be 100% happy.
Also when she writes up the order once they do agree should he be given time to read it prior to the judge seeing it to ensure they haven't slightly changed what was agreed??? Again last time the barrister gave him it to read as they walked in to the court room to see the judge and the judge was in a rush as they were being fitted in to confirm the order.

Id just like to make sure that next time if we request time to read it he won't be seen as being difficult etc

Thanks :)

I know how hard it is when you are pressurised by counsel when you are a litigant in person. I know from bitter experience that it is always better to refuse to sign anything and you must tell the Judge you have not read the paperwork - our Judge was horrible saying he did not want to come back on Monday (it was Friday). He was supposed to be retired. Sod that, you have to live with the bloody order, he doesn't. You have to just tell them to go away and you do not agree.

I can guarantee that if you end up before another Judge saying you did not agree the order, he/she will look at you with disbelief.

Our order was very complicated and when it was sent out to us, it was drawn up by the barrister of our opponent and it had dates and time changes which the Judge had not agreed to - for example late returns from contact.

We wrote to the court disagreeing with the draft Order and the Judge had to refer back to hearing notes etc.

We got it corrected, but there was so many mistakes in the order it drove us mad.