Witness statements - Final Hearing

[slumberjac]

My ex and I exchanged witness statements for our Final Hearing re a Schedule 1 Children's Act Lump Sum Order (plus a TOLATA claim) and 2 weeks later (having read mine) he has decided to redo his and has just served an amended document on me. He has added some personal digs at me (amongst other things) that are both untrue and not relavant to the cases. My feelings are that it cannot be lawful that he can do this after the exchange and want the amended statement to be removed/disallowed/struck. Can I ask the Court for this to be done?

Many thanks...

The court won't pay any attention to comments that are not relevant. They are used to separating couples having digs at each other.

Can I ask for the amended statement to be removed?

SlumberJack- I am in a similar situation and currently trying to find the same answer.

I have a TOLATA final hearing coming up too. For the first hearing myself and my ex were given dates to file and serve statements. I did mine on time. Ex didn't do one, turned up to Court with it and I was given 5 mins to read it and the Judge accepted it.

Judge ordered we both file and serve witness statements before the final hearing in a few months- he files first then I have 28 days to file a response. His deadline date has passed and I've had nothing and the Court say they've not received anything from him either as predicted. I can't respond to nothing can I. So I don't know if I file a statement just with my arguments or if I should write to the Judge (do to know if that's even allowed) to find out what I should do.

Do you have legal representation or are you representing yourself?

I think that anything after the deadline date should have to be ignored, but that didn't happen last time for me so I think it's down to the Judge to decide whether to allow it or not

In my experience the Court has never taken any action when my ex has not complied with orders. Never once. I've filed everything on time and he has rolled up to the hearings with his papers and handed them to me there, as in your case. It's very frustrating! My advice would definitely be to write to the Court but I'll predict that they will write to him giving him an altered/amended deadline!

Yes, I am a representing myself. Are you? The final hearing will be my 5th time!

Yes I'm representing myself too.

He didn't respond to the initial paperwork which I filed in May last year! The first hearing was end of last year (I waited all that time for a hearing) and he didn't turn up, Judge ordered us both to file and serve by December X date, he didn't bother just turned up to the second hearing (last month) with an attitude and the Judge really tore into him. He handed the Judge one single bit of paper as his "statement" and the Judge said he needed to go away and do a proper statement with evidence bundle (like I had done) so he got off easy and drags this out even longer. He hasn't filed or served me with his evidence bundle or statement now and the date has passed. I could scream!

Is your Tolata hearing because you want the property sold or he wants it sold and you want to stay? My ex is living in our jointly owned property and I need him out so we can sell it. I really need the money tied up in it and he's so shit with money he's already underpaying the mortgage and it's in arrears now. He's also not paying the monthly grounds maintenance fee and the leasehold company are threatening legal action against us both. The longer it drags out the more he risks my financial security and it seems he gets away with it every time.

It's quite complicated as we now have 3 separate cases that have been consolidated. He instigated it with a TOLATA claim trying to force the sale of our house as I wouldn't agree to the amount of charge he wanted placed on it. I responded with a lump sum order. I've completely lost faith in the court system & I'm glad it's finally coming to an end - whatever the result! To be able to lock him out of my life (as much as you can when you have kids together) is worth it no matter what happens!

My original post was asking whether I could ask for his latest statement to be struck from the proceedings & I would be grateful for a response regarding this point.

Many thanks