Costs from abroad

[geebee1978]

Bit of a strange one. I'm from the UK where I currently reside with my two children. My wife is Thai and is living in Cyprus. She has issued me with divorce papers from Cyprus. I won't defend the divorce but disagree with the accusations and "fault" and her claim for costs. I suppose the question is, what jurisdiction does a Cypriot family court have over me and what would be the consequence of simply ignoring the papers? Bear in mind I'm taking care of our two children without a penny of maintenance from her.

Google Brussels 2. You could have got in there first but you didn't.

Yeah, I saw it. To be fair, we have no assets and the kids want little to do with her so those things aren't the issue. The main issue is whether a Cypriot family court can impose the costs on me and how easy it'd be to defend.

You'd need to find the MN equivalent in Cyprus for that. Whatever order they can make depends on the law there. It should be enforceable here under the Brussels 2 regulation.

I might be panicking about nothing yet. She has filed for divorce and costs but we don't even know what the costs will amount to and if the court will allow them...there's flimsy evidence for her accusations and hopefully, the Cypriot court just dissolves the marriage and says costs are with the petitioner. It seems to be a common thing in the UK.