Respondents Acknowledgement of Petition - STRANGE

I am the Petitioner in my case and I have petitioned for the divorce on grounds of unreasonable behaviour. I have received this morning the D10 Acknowledgement of service from the court, and on it my wife has answered that she accepts the grounds for divorce and does not wish to defend.

However, along with the D10 the court have sent me a statement written on plain paper by stbx ( or her sol), explaining why I have been unreasonable throughout the marriage and blaming me for the marital breakdown. Its a length statement as well. The court have given no explanation as to why it was attached if she has answered that she does not wish to defend.

Do I return the affidavit and application for Directions for trial as normal, or does the fact that she sent this statement to the court mean its likely we are going to have a hearing?

Thanks

Sounds like she does not wish to defend the divorce, but feels that her unreasonable behaviour was not the sole or major reason that the marriage has broken down, and that yours was also contributory.

If this is the case she is unlikely to agree if you have asked for her to pay the costs. Have a look at the costs section and see if she has agreed to pay your all or any of your costs (if indeed that is what you asked for!!!).

Think about what she has said in her note, is there any grain of truth there? How much are your costs going to be, if you are LIP possibly just the £300 court fees - is it worth fighting over? If she has falsely accused you of criminal activity or any heinous act that may have a bearing on seeing your children then clearly you should seek legal advice (perhaps one of the free half hour interviews that many sols offer)

Thanks for the useful reply. It was a short childless marriage, and the attached statement is just emotionally driven but mentions nothing of any concern to me.

She has objected to paying the costs of the proceedings, and I am fine with this and couldnt care less about the £300. I will be crossing off the end of sentence 6 on my affidavit which states "... and to order the respondent to pay the costs of this suit". Is this correct.

Will the court just ignore the attached she submitted, or is it likely they will arrange a hearing. Remember on he acknowledgement she accepted grounds for divorce and stated she will not be defending.

Sorry, final question. Where can I get specimen completed divorce forms so I can check that my forms are completely correctly.

Thanks in advance.

Defending the divorce and objecting to paying the costs are two completely seperate things.

Basically what your form says legally is - I feel I am entitled to a divorce because my marriage has broken down - this she agrees with (more or less willingly but to defend a divorce these days is pretty futile. You then go on to say- the reason for the marriage breakdown is because she did X,Y and Z, this is unreasonable it is therefore her fault we need this divorce and she should pay.

She has said yes I agree to the divorce, but I don't think it broke down because I did X,Y and Z I think it broke down because he did A,B and C (the things listed on her statement)and therefore I don't think I should pay. That's why she has submitted the form and it will make no difference to your ability to be successful in your application for divorce.

The clerks at the court can advise you whether the form is technically correct, but they can't give legal advice. Lots of people on here have self repped maybe one of them will kindly advise you where to find a completed specimen (ooh er)

The judge may decide on a hearing just to make sure that she does agree to divorce. That happened to a friend of mine. She filed Acknowledgement of Service to say that she was not defending but then in the letter she pointed out all of his failings and that she didnt agree to come of the UBG for whatever reason. So a hearing was set, she didnt attend (I guess it was just a case that she wanted to put her two pennith in) and the divorce went ahead. In this instance the Judge had to be satisfied that she was, in affect, agreeing to be divorced. As she didnt attend it was deemed she obviously did. Even if she did attend as both parties saying they agree am sure the divorce still would have progressed.

To back track he submitted affidavit etc to continue and then he received the notice of hearing. So yes just carry on. The Court always attach what they class as answers to the UBG. It may hold up proceedings for a short while in my friend's instance but it didnt have any difference to outcome. They are divorced!