Maintenance pending suit I cannot find help anywhere about the process....

[Onedaystronger]

I am struggling to afford legal advice. I have a solicitor but need to be very careful how much I use him.

My Solicitor has submitted a maintenance pending suit application to the family court. As far as I know my STBEXH has not responded to any letters that my solicitor sent prior to submitting the application to the court regarding financial hardship, or since (it was submitted almost 2 weeks ago).

I just want some clear information about how the court processes the application, and a very approximate idea of timescales.

I've literally no idea how it works, what happens next etc..

I appreciate that ideally I'd ask my solicitor but he is hard to reach and charges me huge sums for every minute. Surely this information should be available online, especially given the increasing amounts of people forced to represent themselves due to lack of funds.

I've spent hours on Google and haven't found information about timescales and how the matter is supposed to proceed.

Please can anyone help?

An application is made, either during existing financial proceedings or when starting financial proceedings. If the application is made before Form E is filed, you must provide a statement in support explaining why the order is necessary and giving up to date information about their finances. The respondent (your ex) must file a statement of his means. There will then be a hearing to deal with the application.

@prh47bridge thank you very very much for your reply. I have (via solicitor) filed a statement. Form Es have been exchanged so I included an update of my financial situation since form E.

Is there any guidance you can offer wrt very approximate timescales?

I've literally no idea when STBXH will see my statement. It should not be a surprise as we did try a more collaborative approach as an alternative to court and gave plenty of time- but they did not respond at all.

I'm worried that he's going to hit the roof when he reads my statement. It's all absolutely true but he won't take it well, and somehow I feel having a rough idea as to when he might receive it would be helpful.

Similarly a very rough idea of when we may get a hearing, or how it all works feels like it might help me cope with all this.

I am maybe missing something but as a layperson it feels frustrating that this information seems unavailable.

For a standard financial application the first hearing should be listed 12-16 weeks after the application has been filed at Court. Where an application is made for MPS then the first hearing should be earlier than this. The purpose of a MPS application is to provide you with financial support before the case is finally decided which can be many months