Ex partners Solicitor not sending over statement

[Pebbledashery]

Hi all.
Need some advice. Going through the family court with my ex partner, there are multiple safeguarding concerns and it was high level domestic violence that my daughter and I fled from. At our last hearing both Counsels agreed that our statements should be struck out and we should resubmit and base our statement around our 3 allegations in our schedule of allegations. We have an upcoming fact finding later in the year.
The deadline for our statements was early last week.. My statement was submitted on the day and sent across to the other side. It is a very strong statement that is backed up with multiple amounts of evidence..
My ex partners Solicitor has not sent his statement across yet a week later.. We both have to respond to each others statements by next week.. I've asked my solicitor to chase up but she's being ignored by them. I feel this is a very under handed tactic which means I will not have enough time to write a quality response. My exes solicitor has also done things like.. Sending across the bundle at the eleventh hour, purposely leaving out my statement and evidence from the bundle so that my solicitor has had to prepare a supplementary bundle. Is there anything that I can do? They are so underhanded and I'm getting so frustrated.

Your solicitor can raise it in court when you go back as it is all evidence of continuing to play control games. You have all the facts so hopefully your response will not take too long to draft. And yes it is outrageous he is playing games like this but he is risking putting himself in contempt of court x

Thank you for replying. I sense I'm going to get his statement a couple of days before the deadline so it's a rush job.. He's also not responding to letters about other things as well. Can the deadline to respond possibly be extended for that reason?

I'm not a legal expert but just have spent time in family court. I would ask your solicitor of she can request an extension for the documents to be submitted, but it would have to be agreed by the Judge. In some ways the later the better as your solicitor should evidence how late they arrived and the judge will really not be impressed IME and it will show and further evidence the game playing.

I bet they come up with some BS about oh we did send it it just got lost in the system. Total crap.

Unfortunately they do not have to exchange until the deadline. There will still be a certain amount of time once they serve it for you to respond as set down in the directions for your case.

If you have both agreed already that it will be based on the schedule of allegations you already have an idea of what is coming.

Your solicitor can't chase them for it early.

Sorry I thought you said the deadline was early next week. Why doesn't MN have a facepalm emoji?!

Ignore my last post!!

So basically the deadline for us to RESPOND and file our responses to each others statements is next week

But the original deadline to file and submit our first statements was early last week and we haven't received anything from us solicitor.

Can't your solicitor inform the judge that you have not received their submission by the agreed deadline in order for you to compile your response?

For some reason I can't see your full comment @mrjollylivesnextdoor

Oh I can see it now. Yes she said we'll give it one more day and then tell the judge. It's just more game playing.

Well it's not going to look good on them, Judges don't like being pissed about so their game playing (tedious and frustrating though it is) might favour you. Hold that thought!

Good luck

I'm family lawyer. You say the hearing is 'later in the year', if it's quite far away I would give yourself the same interval of time that you would have had to respond, and file it late as well, explaining the reason in the covering letter to the Court.
Unfortunately though family courts generally don't give a crap about things being late (if it's between hearings and the hearing can still go ahead), and you often turn up on the day to discover the judge hasn't even read the papers yet, very frustrating.
Civil lawyers can believe how slack it is, but on the other hand you can't have children's futures being determined based on someone's ability or inability to meet a deadline.

Sorry civil lawyers can't believe

Hello. Thanks for replying. Yes our fact finding is in the summer. But the deadline to file and serve our first statements was last week. His solicitor hasn't bothered to send anything across yet. Is it worth my solicitor letting the court know its not been received yet?

@Pebbledashery to be honest the court won't do anything.
Are there further actions to take place after the statements but before the hearing?

@Arcadia nope just the response to statements, preparation of bundle and then the fact finding.
How can they go on all the information for the fact finding if I've not had a chance to respond to his statement though and he's responded to mine?

Can my solicitor ask for an extension for me to respond?

Chances are they're busy amending their client's statement to include a response to the points you raise in yours. I never send a statement out unless the other side confirm they will exchange at the same time.

You perhaps need to get them to agree you can file a statement in response.

@Collaborate that is what I think - but there is no feasible way for him to respond and say the opposite to what I have stated because I have evidenced every single paragraph. I've just spoken to my Solicitor who said she doesn't want to chase them anymore because she wants them to get in trouble and we shouldn't be helping them.
It's also possible that my ex hasn't paid his last bill and they aren't doing any further work for him until he has as there are 2 separate letters he hasn't responded to either,
He cannot include a response in his statement that I am to respond to because his statement needs to address his allegations and not mine. We have to file and serve two different statements.

@Collaborate Hi Collaborate - I have called the Court to see if they have received a copy and they have not received anything from the other side, they told me to send an email to inform the Court the deadline has been missed by them and documents have not been submitted and it'll be added to the Court file.
If my ex hasn't paid his legal bill, the Solicitor won't be doing any further work for him until he has, is that correct?

If he hasn't paid his bill that is very likely. However the Judge has not told the solicitor to submit the statement he has told your ex to. So whether he has a solicitor to write it for him or he writes it himself is irrelevant to the court. The Judge will expect it to be submitted on time unless a request is made to delay for a significant reason. This is all potentially going in your favour so don't panic x

Yes you're right... It's him that needs to file the statement in line with the deadline. I find it very disconcerting as him and his barrister absolutely pushed for this fact finding hearing as if I'm the guilty party 🤔. When I spoke to the person at the Court they said they couldn't see that an extension had be requested.. I'm just wondering why they have missed the deadline. I know it'll work in our favour but I don't understand it.

Ask your solicitor to make an application to the court for an “unless order” - basically asking the Judge to make an order stating that “unless ExH responds to your statement within 7 days, his response is struck out and your allegations stand as fact, with the Finding of Fact hearing vacated”

Within that application, you can ask the Judge to make an order that if he does file, you be given X time to respond.

To be honest though, I’m surprised your solicitor served your statement on the other side (filing with court is fine) without first getting an agreement with them that they were in a similar position to exchange.

Thanks. His solicitor is also not replying to letters though regarding other matters so I have no idea what's going on.
I feel like it's something very untoward though.. It's just the not knowing.

My Solicitor has emailed me saying they are making an application to get his statement struck out because they have been all over us regarding failure of compliance and abuse of process etc...