Filing statements

[balia]

DH has taken his ex back to court for holiday contact. At the last directions, both parties were ordered to submit statements on the quantum of contact by a certain date. Ex's sol emailed DH and said as she was going on holiday, could she make it a couple of days later, and he agreed. However, that date has come and gone - we have filed our statement with the court and sent her a copy, but have heard nothing from her.

Is this normal?

No that unusual, though ehe shouldn't have sent the other side a copy until they were in a position to reciprocate. Never mind.

If the hearing is getting a bit close (say 3 weeks) a letter to the judge may be in order.

He sent it on the date specified though - ie when she said it would be ready, and she also specified the method of exchange, eg the time and date of posting. He hasn't heard anything else from her and he has tried to ring. Court date isn't for ages, though.

Send a letter to the judge if he's worried, and copy it in to the other side. That often works to shame them, although it may be that their client hasn't signed and returned their satatement yet, or it's caught up in a typing backlog.

Thank you - I don't think he would be as worried if he could get anywhere with phone/email contact with the sol's office. If they are waiting for his ex to sign/return it (very very likely solution, don't know why we didn't think of it) then why not a message to say that?

She is supposed to be emailing tonight so if she doesn't a letter to the judge will be his next step.

This exact same thing happened to us, we filed and served on the date as ordered but they never filed their statement for 6 weeks and the statement that she did file was pretty much a response to our one instead of it being her unbiaised view. But when it was filed late we knew it was intentional and not complying has unfortunately continued

We did write to the judge to make him fully aware, in the end the courts wrote to them directly requesting an explanation as to the delay, they never responded to that letter either!!!

Good luck :)

Can't see how seeing ours first would gain them any advantage - ours basically says we agree with the Cafcass report. Ex is very anti though, so she may not be co-operating with her sol.

Thanks for the luck! DSS is so excited about the idea of getting holidays with his Dad DH doesn't want to do anything to let him down. He's always really nervous before court.

Maybe it is a case then that there is a backlog of typing to be done, I remember that happened when we used a solicitor the other year! I'm so used to the games it's becoming almost normal lol

hopefully you will get an answer soon. Is the solicitor back from her holiday yet? Have you tried emailing the solicitor we always find that should we then need to contact the court we've always got proof of no response etc.

Have received an email to say that the draft copy went to ex two days late due to sol being ill (overdid it on holiday? ) and they are now waiting for ex to approve and return. So not holding our breath, but much reassured. Thanks all.

Now over a week since we were supposed to exchange. Still no sign of ex's statement. It is almost certainly not the sol's fault, but ex stalling/refusing to sign etc. However, how long do we wait before doing anything else? (Court date not until December, so no rush for anything; but DH self-reps so he likes to have as much time as possible to deal with anything that crops up.)

If you're not willing to write to the judge there's nothing else you can do.

If it was me I'd be writing to the judge. The courts need to be made aware that their not complying

Should DH make another attempt to contact the sol (I feel sorry for the woman, actually) before he writes?

He's going to draft a letter this weekend and post if the statement doesn't arrive Monday - not ignoring your advice, honest! Does he just say it hasn't arrived or explain about the agreed delay, sol being ill stuff?

So, wrote to Judge (posted monday 15th) and to Cafcass Officer with copy of our statement as she will need time to prepare as well. On the 16th, DH asked ex about it (hadn't before as she has tendency to kick off) and she denied seeing it. DH emailed sol, who responded on the 19th by saying the first copy had gone out, but after DH's email she had tried to contact ex by phone unsuccessfully, so has emailed ex and sent out another copy, and would email us a copy as soon as she got the signed copy.

Still nothing. DH concerned that ex is 1) refusing to sign the statement or 2) ignoring it in the hope it will go away.

Any ideas about what happens now?