There are some significant changes to the divorce process,and how
applications are processed, that litigants need to aware of.
This is a very useful and concise Q&A from Family Law Week.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service explain how the forthcoming changes will
affect the divorce process in England and Wales.
HM Courts and
Tribunal Service has confirmed its plans for the handling of divorce work
within the Family Court to Family Law Week, and has produced the following
question and answer document to address the common concerns and queries
that have been raised in relation to the implementation of dedicated
divorce centres.
The question and answer document is intended to
address the national picture, and explain the rationale behind the changes.
For those regions that are currently transferring work to their divorce
centres, or are about to commence implementation, tailored communications
will be distributed to practitioners and court users as and when individual
areas transfer over to the centres.
HM Courts & Tribunals
Service has taken the decision to create 11 divorce centres within England
and Wales, with the vast majority of uncontested decree
nisi applications being considered by Legal Advisers
(rather than district judges) at those centres.
What is
the reason for the change?Following the Family Justice
Review the single Family Court was created, which is a single jurisdiction
without the previous geographical boundaries of county courts. Subsequently
the Crime and Courts Act 2013 enabled legal advisers to consider decree
nisi applications and
directions for trial across the family court. In light
of these changes HM Courts & Tribunals Service agreed plans with the
Ministry of Justice and with the President of the Family Division for
uncontested decree nisi applications to be considered by legal advisers at
designated divorce centre locations in England and Wales. Legal advisers
will therefore deal with the majority of routine decree nisi applications,
which will free up judicial time for other work, and reduce processing
delays and inconsistency. The divorce centres will be centres of expertise
that will improve services, release efficiencies of scale and minimise the
possibility of fraud.
Where are the locations of the 11
divorce centres?There will be centres within each Region as
follows:
North East: there will be centres at Durham, Doncaster,
Harrogate* and Bradford
North West: there will be one centre at
Liverpool
Wales: there will be centres at Neath, Newport and
Wrexham
Midlands: there will be centres at Nottingham and Stoke
South West: there will be one centre at Southampton
London and South
East: there will be one centre at Bury St Edmunds.
*Work from
Harrogate will transfer to Bradford in due course.
When
will the centres be in operation?Some divorce centres are
already fully or partly live. The transfer of divorce work is being phased
in to the centres, and the current plan is that each of the divorce centres
will be fully operational as follows:
North East: November
2014
North West: February 2015
Wales: January 2015
Midlands:
February to April 2015
South West: February to April 2015
London
and South East: April to October 2015.
What do these
changes mean for court users?The key change is that all
divorce petitions and financial remedy applications should be sent by post
to one of the centres rather than your local court, with the exception of
urgent applications that require immediate issue.
It is possible
to attend in person at one of the centres to issue a
petition with or without a financial remedy application
where there is a counter service in operation, but this will not gain any
advantage in terms of the way the application is handled subsequently.
Counter and drop box facilities for each HM Courts & Tribunals
Service region are as follows.
North East: There is a counter
service at Bradford, Harrogate and Durham. At Doncaster a counter service
will be in operation for urgent pre-booked appointments only.
North
West: The Liverpool divorce centre does not have counter service, but a
drop box facility is available.
Wales: Neath, Newport and Wrexham all
have counter services in operation.
Midlands: A counter service will
be in operation at the Divorce Centres in Nottingham and Stoke for urgent
applications only.
South West: No counter service is available at
Southampton. Applications can be posted in the post box outside the
building, which is emptied twice a day.
London and South East: A
counter service is available at Bury St Edmunds.
Is the
application process changing?The application process will
remain unchanged but all uncontested petitions will be prepared and made
ready for initial decree nisi consideration by a legal adviser
based at the centre. The legal advisers will be supervised by
district judges on site, who will handle any contested applications,
annulments and judicial
separation applications.
Legal advisers will not handle any financial remedy cases.
What if I need a hearing?The centres are points of
entry for divorce applications. However, if a hearing is required this will
be listed at a local hearing centre and court users will have the
opportunity to indicate where the hearing should take place, for example,
at the same court as any Children Act application, more locally to where
the parties reside, or at a more central location when the parties live in
completely different areas.
The Family Procedure Rules Committee
will be considering changes to the
D8 petition form and
Form A financial
remedy form so that a preferred hearing venue can be requested, if one is
required (please see the list of hearing venues at Annex A). If there is
any dispute over the venue for hearings, this will be dealt with in the
usual way by a district judge at the divorce centre.
How
do civil partnership dissolutions fit into this?In time,
civil partnership dissolution applications will also be required to be sent
to the same centres, but the timetable for this is not yet
confirmed. However, civil partnership work at Newcastle has already
transferred to Durham, and in the Midlands applications will be dealt with
at both Nottingham and Stoke as soon as implementation is complete.
What are the catchment areas for each Divorce
Centre?The Family Court is a single jurisdiction without the
previous geographical boundaries of county courts, so ''catchment areas''
are no longer a legal entity, but do help HM Courts & Tribunals Service to
manage the distribution of business (although in Children Act cases the
child''s place of
residence does determine
the designated family judge area in which the case should be heard). The
Family Court catchment areas are based on local authority
boundaries with each designated family judge area and region being made up
of a collection of local authorities.
Court and Tribunal Finder
will be the source of information on catchment areas and all points of
entry for all family cases. It is currently being updated so that any
search made under divorce application will indicate the correct point of
entry. Court and Tribunal Finder searches by postcode rather than the local
authority they reside in as research has indicated that more people know
their postcode than the relevant local authority. To access the Court and
Tribunal Finder, please click here.
Can I continue to
issue divorce applications at my nearest centre?There are no
legal changes that prevent you from issuing to a particular centre; however
we would encourage bulk users to continue to send any batches of multiple
applications to the nearest centre in their region, to avoid any delays.
How will Financial Remedy applications be dealt
with?Financial remedy applications, particularly those where
parties are seeking a
consent order, will mostly be handled by district
judges located at the divorce centres.
Where the application is
contested or requires a hearing it will be listed, where possible, at the
applicant''s preferred hearing venue.
Where a financial
application has been referred to a local hearing centre the divorce
petition will also be transferred to the local court hearing centre.
However there may be occasions where it is suitable for the petition to
continue to be processed at the divorce centre depending on the stage of
the divorce proceedings.
In the Midlands, financial remedy work
will not transfer to the divorce centres until later in the year when
further information will be provided to court users.
Are
there circumstances where a legal adviser could consider a consent
order?No. Legal advisers do not have the power to handle
financial remedy applications.
What happens if a party
wishes to attend the pronouncement of the Decree Nisi or the respondent
wishes to be heard on the question of costs?The Family
Procedure Rules Committee are considering an increase to the notice period
for costs orders in undefended proceedings from two to fourteen days and to
include the court and all parties in the service of the notice. This will
enable arrangements to be made for the transfer of cases to local court
centres for the purpose of any hearing about costs.
Subject to
the rule changes outlined above being agreed, if a party wishes to attend
the pronouncement of the Decree Nisi they will need to notify the court
setting out the reason for their attendance.
How will
urgent applications be dealt with?There are no legal or
other changes (no changes have been made or are currently proposed to
primary or secondary legislation) which affect the ability to issue urgent
petitions, for example where there is a jurisdiction race.
All
family court venues that have district judges on site, including the
Central Family Court, will continue to accept urgent petitions and
applications, and will retain the facility to issue.
The Family
Procedure Rules Committee will consider whether the D8 form should be
amended so that matters of urgency can be articulated.
What is the procedure for filing a Children Act application where
there are already on-going divorce proceedings?Children Act
applications should be sent to the point of entry for the designated family
judge area in which the child resides as this is defined in law. The point
of entry will usually be the Designated Family Centre for the designated
family judge area. If either the divorce or the financial remedy
application requires a hearing then arrangements can be made for this to
take place at the same venue as the Children Act case if necessary. When a
hearing is not required they will be administered separately.
Has the process for undertaking a Divorce Search
changed?HM Courts & Tribunals Service are looking at
simplifying the search facility for divorce generally, though this work is
at an early stage. In the meantime there is no change to the current search
service.
What is the process for dealing with
applications to vary or discharge?For vary and discharge,
applications should go to the divorce centre - they will be redirected to
local venues if necessary.
How are these changes being
communicated to court users?Because the implementation dates
of the divorce centres is being staggered, each HM Courts & Tribunals
Service region has taken responsibility for ensuring communications have
been provided to local users. Communications are being delivered via a
number of different channels, including posters displayed in local
courthouses and letters sent out to regular court users.
HM
Courts & Tribunals Service has also worked closely with Resolution. A
bulletin outlining the changes has been issued to its members and all
concerns and questions raised by its members have been fed back to HM
Courts & Tribunals Service for clarification.
We hope that this
Q&A document has been helpful in clarifying a number of points, and we will
continue to update this document during the course of implementation.
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