Hi Guys,
I soon to have a court hearing ( some papers were served to me) in August and am very anxious to understand what all these means. I do have a solicitor FYI which I'm waiting till the end of the week to review the application ect.
Here's the background and some details anyway first.
- Myself and ex-partner own a home together ( been here 8 week! new house)
- Been together 2 years
- She has 1 kid (age 11 - different relationship)
- I have 2 kids (age 18 months and 4 - different relationship)
-Both have 50/50 time with the kids although she saying otherwise in her statement i.e. she primary carer and my kids dont stay with me at all
- She is now with her parent 3 bed house
- I stayed in the home
--Live with her half the time in her rental place
--Been on holidays with her ( without my kids mainly until the final holiday which is where I believe things went wrong )
-- she a teacher which I highlight due to safe guarding
--No report any incidents as we never had any issues
Anyway cut the story short with a flip of a switch left me, decided say I'm abusive, controlling ,forced her to do things in our sexual relationship, all which are all false statements. The first solicitor letter I obtain was please voluntary leave the house in 14days if you don't will go to court for a non-mol and occupational order. Also our client wishes to put the house on the open market soon as possible.
Took me over a week get a solicitor appointment but in the mean time I went ahead got load of estate agency quotes replied to my ex's solicitor to say I'm waiting for legal advice and will be in touch shortly but in the mean time he are the quotes which estate agency would you client like to put the house in the open market with?
There response was to totally ignore this, and state I've ignored my client request to move out within 14 days (even though I email back within 5 days roughly and said I'm still awaiting legal advice and will be in touch) we will move forward with the application. Wasn't till few days later after meeting my solicitor did they respond with who my ex wanted to put the house on the market with and gave me the green light.
Anyway after my solicitor explained they had no grounds based on my ex, finding a place with her parents, and the house being on the market, myself having nowhere to go with my 2 kids and that I work from home and have special equipment ( hard of hearing) in the house to keep me safe i.e. fire alarm, doorbell, kids cries in the night all which alerts me via pager.
Over the next week or 2 went quite no response until a gentleman served me some papers which he said she not got the order but it going to a hearing. My solicitors explains that its not a final hearing but one we go to see how to resolve matters, but I have not been given the right yet to provide evidence. That being said I'm confused what the hearing for? and what action can be taken? within hearing my side?
Seems like I'm paying a £1000 to say I wish to contest the application ...and we move to a final hearing? is that how it works? I know the ideal is to see if you can work it between ourselves but you wouldn't take it to court to then say actually lets leave things as they are..mainly speaking from the occupation order here.
In her application her evidence (screen shots) of just me telling her over the 2 years I'm obsessed with her i.e. I love her, jokes around [censored] and saying I want [censored] with her which was a two way things an example was (which i think is stupid) is I titled the whole bathroom, never done tiling before and stressed me to [censored] so In a message when it was nearly finished with a photo of the bathroom I wrote "Nearly done! I definitely deserves [censored] after this lol".... is this really evidence which is going to be used against me.
There was also what supposed to be some controlling messages but dont even have contents in them just one sides messages which to me arent controlling. One was "have I got time for a sun bed" I responded "no" - was driving at the time so kept it short but the context was we were going gym , had 30misn train , I was round the corner and quickly responded, but even without the context to me that not controlling.
Oh and evidence that I wanted to marry her over the past 2 years cause I though she was perfect and everything was perfect to the fact Im actually lost in all this..although I have believe we split cause of me having two young kids which she struggled with from the beginning specially the youngest but that another story.
Since the split I have only tried to seek reciliation but after these false statements came to light the only contact which I wanted to not have in place have come from her about housing and bills etc along with allegations at the start which I denied are true. I have never swore, or raised my voice or even shown any sign of aggression even after the split so I know my heart is clear, but the thoughts of her being a woman and making up lies scares me that anyone's opinion would choose the woman over the man. Specially as I've been told you can get these kindof order in place without evidence.
Anyway purpose of this post was to find out what happens in this first hearing? worse case and best case?
Sorry if I went too much into detail, I though the more info the better advice?
Thank you
David
Hi,
If you will be using solicitors and barristers for many applications such as non mol, occupation and child arrangements, then your legal costs could be as high as £50,000.
Here is info from a law site:
What happens at an occupation order hearing?
An occupation order hearing is held in private. In most cases only you and any legal representatives will be present. If you provided notice of you application to the respondent, then they may also be present at the hearing.
At the occupation order hearing the court will consider your occupation order form together with your order statement and any evidence you have provided at the occupation order hearing the judge will also consider whether you are able to apply for an order and consider the balance of harm test and the core criteria test.
Following consideration of all information and evidence at the end of the occupation order hearing the court will make one of the following decisions:
- request the respondent to provide an undertaking to do or not do something
- request you to provide more information in support of your occupation order. If this is the case an interim order may be granted to allow you time to obtain all the information, or
- issue the order.
If an occupation order is issued you will receive a copy from the court, and the court may either require you to serve the order on the respondent or alternatively agree to serve the documents on the respondent themselves.
See this is where I'm confused as my solicitor said the following
"Please note that this is not a Final Hearing. The Court has provided one hour to enable consideration to be given as to how this matter should be resolved. In the event that it cannot be resolved by negotiation, then the Court will give Directions for you to file a Statement in response to L Statement (currently the Court has not given you permission to do this). I have not as yet considered the full notes that you have provided to me, but of course will do so prior to the Hearing. "
So if I'm not give evidence yet what the first state for?
@dave1816 am not sure. If you ask your solicitor, they should be able to explain the process.
The first hearing will be a Directions Hearing to decide the way forward. The Judge will consider what information is needed and when it should be provided. There will be a timetable for the information and statements to be provided.