Final Hearing - Thank You

I had my final hearing today. I represented myself and it was probably one of the most stressful days of my life. I hoped for 50/50 care against my ex-wifes proposal of 75/25 and the court ordered that I see my daughter for almost every friday saturday and sunday night. Thank you to everyone on here who helped me every step of the way. I couldn''t have gone through it without your advice here

Congratulations, and I bet you''re pleased it''s all over with now.

I have my final hearing in a few weeks, though finances rather than children.

I was following your earlier thread as I have similar questions - how did you present your case law in the end, and was it acceptable to the judge?

Hi, I just took my case law to court, gave it to the other sides barrister then handed a copy to the court when I got in. I then discussed it as I presented my case. If Im honest I wish Id sent it to court before so that the court weren''t annoyed with me presenting a wedge of documents to them - even though it was only about 30 pages in total. I wish i''d included my exhibits included in the bundle with a skeleton argument too for the same reason if im honest. My position statement had gone to court months ago and was a bit out dated. The other side did a really up to date statement with a bang up to date 12 month schedule of care. Mine was 6 months out of date and i nearly lost everything because of it as they wanted and easy option they could type out or refer to as the order of care to put in place. I dont think the court really read my case law as the hearing was only for 3 hours and they were quite challenging in terms of saying it was disappointing that the case had ever come to court. Good luck with your case

What’s supposed to happen when one side has legal representation and the other doesn’t, is that the side with representation is responsible for producing the “bundle” of court documents, which is then agreed by you. There is a prescribed table of contents and list of what can and can’t be included in the bundle. I can’t remember this list off hand but for financial hearings it will be something like – form E’s, questionnaires, schedule of assets, capital needs, income needs …etc

When I self-repped I asked the opposing solicitor to send me a scanned copy of the bundle about a week in advance (although in practice I never got it until the day before), I then reviewed and if there was anything extra I wanted to add I would send it to them ask for it to be added.

I then produced a position statement (or “Note”) which outlined my case to the judge. This was typically 2-3 pages max of numbered points which spelt out my argument. I printed 3 copies and took them with me to court. Before the hearing I left one with the court secretary, and gave one to the opposing barrister – the last one was for me.

To make a convincing case, you need to understand what factors the judge is going to consider, and then focus your case on those items. For example in the case of finances the relevant items are income, assets and needs. Arguing at length about other issues such as who allegedly mistreated who, who contributed what or wasted what during the marriage is a risky strategy and may also distract the judge from your main argument.