Help !!! ExFailed to exchange Form E prior to FDA

Please can someone give me guidance.

I submitted my form E to the court on 5th June 2019 and have held back the copy to my former spouses solicitor as they failed to respond to my request for an exchange date for disclosure.

I am now required to submit the chronology and questionnaire by the 25th June 2019 in time for the FDA on 10th July 2019, however how am I supposed to complete the Questionnaire when I have not received my ex spouses disclosure as I have no questions to raise on a document I have not received.

The legal representative is clearly trying to make it difficult for me in light of the fact that I am representing myself.

Have you contacted her solicitor to ask when they will be ready to exchange and their preferred method for doing so?? It may be worth checking they are still on the court file as representing your ex.

You have done the right thing in filing with the court to show you have complied with the order.

If the other side fail to produce a form E, you should complete your chronology and Statement of Issues and file on the given date. Do a header for the questionnaire and simply state that the Form E has not been provided so you reserve the right to raise questions when it is provided.


Hadenoughnow

Thank you for your response!

I sent a copy of my change of representatives to show I was now a LIP to my stbx solicitor and asked that they correspond with a date for exchange. I had no response so emailed the solicitor a week before the deadline and they still ignored my correspondence. As a result of which I filed with the court the Form E as requested and did not submit a copy to the stbx solicitor due to not having an agreed exchange date.

As far as I am aware the stbx is using the same solicitor as in correspondence from the court in April.

Should I also make a remark on the statement of issues that their may be some to raise when I have seen light of the disclosure ?

The statement of Issues sets out the things you need the court to help you resolve.

So you can put in stuff like
Future housing needs
Earning capacity and future income needs
Whether there should be a pension share
If a Clean Break is appropriate

And yes, I would state that there may be further issues once you have had sight of her Form E.

Hadenoughnow

That information is useful Thankyou!

I have one more question.

I have documents regarding 2 x pensions that my husband only mentioned very briefly with me during the marriage so I assume he will fail to disclose them on Form E, however I don’t know how I will be able to prove this as the documents were delivered to the home address after he left and I know it is a criminal offence to open someone’s mail which is what I did.

If he fails to declare and I am unable to disclose that I have evidence, this could have a major impact on the settlement as the pensions are worth a substantial amount.

This is also the case involving a sharesave scheme where his employers refunded him just short of 4K in April 2018 following dismissal for misconduct as a result of sexual offences against my child (hence the reason the marriage ended) , however this sum will not be mentioned as it doesn’t fall within the last 12 months, and yet if he has not committed the crimes and we were still married, there would have been a substantial payout when the shares matured after 3 years. Once again I opened the mail regarding this refund in April 2018 after he had left.

I opened both documents and failed to pass them on to him because there was an 8 year restraining order imposed on him (no excuse for opening the post I know)

How can I get round this without admitting that I have opened the letters 3

I would wait until you have seen his disclosure before fretting about this. If he does not declare the pensions, you can ask about them. As you said he mentioned them so it would be reasonable to ask.

As far as lost share options go, there is a conduct leading to loss argument. However the most important consideration is going to be needs. If the ability to meet his needs as well as yours is impacted by this loss, I would suggest he should be the one to take the hit because he is responsible.

Hadenoughnow