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I received a court order from my ex partners solicitor today to appear in court on the 11th of this month, one weeks time for first hearing of a contact order.
the judge made the order on the 1st of may.
social services have until the 6th (2 days time) to file a report on their resent involvement on my ex girlfriend. this meaning they must of been informed about the forthcoming court date long before I was today.
Has her solicitor just received the court date or is it possible they have held back thee paperwork and if so is 7 days notice deemed fair?
if anyone can help clear this up for me id be very gratefull
Hi There,
I would have thought that the date for the order would have been sent out a while ago, I know I always had around 4 weeks notice of when I was going to court.
It's possible the solicitor was holding off on sending you the date or it could be that the office was busy and it was dealt with as quickly as they could you will never know.
GTTS
I am very surprised that the Court did not serve you with a copy of the Order direct, normally the Applicant's Solicitors would serve a copy on your for good measure. Do the Court have your address, do you have a copy of the application and the order listing the hearing the hearing for 1 May or was it an urgent application.
You would normally receive a copy of the Order from the Court within about 14 days.
Have you got a solicitor acting for you? Have you notified the Court you are acting for yourself?
You need to ensure that you receive a copy of Social Services report before the next hearing.
hi Eyamachaela thanks for your reply.
The judge set the order for the first hearing on the 1st of may but I was only served the papers from her solicitors through the post today.
no it wasn't an urgent application.
the court don't have my address as all papers were sent to my parents house as I have so far kept my a ex due to threats made to me while at my old address for which I have copies of the texts.
I am acting for myself because of the new legal aid rules. the court don't know this but her solicitor does.
the hearing is set for the 11th june.
yes I received a copy of the application with the order to attend.
would I be served a copy of the social services report before the hearing?
Hi there 🙂
I think the fault lies with her solicitor, they should have served the papers on you as soon as they received them from the court... I would be tempted to call the court tomorrow and ask them why you have only just been served with the papers since they were dated 1st May and you have only be given a week to prepare. I would also bring it to the attention of the judge....I'm sure this is not protocol.
yes nannyjane that will be the first thing I do. I tried today but by the time I got the paperwork the court office was closed
...It will be interesting to see what they say...I believe that with some solicitors its common practise to drag their heels and not file documents etc until the last moment. I think that protocol says that the applicant should serve papers as soon as is practicable...please let us know what they say 🙂
It does not matter what address you are using, the Court should have sent a copy to your parents address, as I am guessing that that is the address that they used in their Application.
If, however, the Solicitors served the documents on you, then they are grossly out of order for sending the Application and Order out to you so late! And you should make reference to that in the Court documents. In the ordinary course of events, they should have sent the application out to you immediately it was sealed by the court and a date will have been given,i.e. the one on 1 May. Even if they didn't send you a copy of that Order straightaway, (which I strongly doubt), you should have received the application before 1 May.
Her Solicitors are very much in the wrong, and as I said, you should make reference to it in the Court/your statement when you need to fil it.
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