Divorce :Ex Repeatedly Refusing To Co-operate

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dublinwoman72

Registered User
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I am judicially separated 8 years ago, and have been seeking to divorce my spouse now for almost 4 years. First I engaged informally with them and got nowhere. Then 3 years ago my solicitor wrote to them seeking a consent divorce. They got nowhere. They refused to engage with mediation.They were served with a civil bill two years ago but have repeatedly refused to engage.

A case progression hearing was not progressed with in February this year as they agreed via their solicitor and my solicitor to produce the relevant documents in 2 weeks but when they did so after 4 months they were very incomplete. So there was a case progression hearing last week, they did not turn up / were not represented, the registrar has given them 3 weeks to produce complete documents and given a date in April 2023 for a further case progression hearing. I fully expect that nothing will be produced within the 3 weeks, or made something or maybe next April or maybe never.

This is very stressful, very expensive and deliberate "foot dragging" is going on. I can't get on with my life. My solicitor was v surprised with the next date in April 2023 for more case progression. My solicitor believes that the earliest there will be a divorce hearing is maybe November 2023, but who knows?

Q. What can I do? Nothing? Is there a mechanism to bypass case progression and seek the court to rule on a divorce.? Is there any "right of appeal" with the Court Registrar system and seek an earlier case progression date. I would be very grateful for any help.
 
What did your solicitor say about all this?
 
Appeared to feel we are stuck with this decision by the Court Registrar. I suppose my question is can you petition a FL judge to bypass case progression?
 
dublinwoman72 said:
Then 3 years ago my solicitor wrote to them seeking a consent divorce.
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OP - you previously posted that you wanted to use the divorce as an opportunity to get increased maintenance. It sounds like your husband is dragging his feet in producing financial records that you hope to rely upon in getting more money from him. To put it plainly, what you are describing sounds very much like a contested divorce case.

For those who might be planning on getting a consent divorce, yes, this can be obtained relatively quickly - - - not very quickly, but certainly quicker than the process described by OP.
 
Thank you for all your posts. My question in summary is if one party won’t cooperate with case progression by repeatedly refusing to produce proper vouching,how do you get past this ? What happens? Thank you
 
If there is refusal to Co-operate and you are before the courts then your solicitor can appeal to the judge to apply sanctions to the party who is not cooperating. The issue is the timeline. The courts and judge/registrar will give every opportunity to someone to comply because they don’t want to apply sanctions too hastily. All you can do is urge your solicitor to push for quicker resolution during the court hearings.

Has your solicitor explained the next steps that can be taken. He would be best placed to advise you as he knows all the details.
 
Third case progression hearing due very soon and very clear ex is going to produce no documents. Multiple comms between my solicitor and ex's solicitor, no response at all from ex. Solicitor says nothing that can be done, just grin and bear it basically. I'm asking for second opinion here or maybe someone else who has experience / insight into these kind of situations.

Can court registrar decide at a particular stage to just bypass the need to have all documents assembled (because I know this is never going to happen), and enable progression to a court divorce hearing?

Or can my solicitor apply to the family court system to bypass case progression and progress to a court divorce hearing?
 
If they are looking to reopen settlement terms, it might explain the extensive delay.

If they don't wish to re-marry there's no real reason to divorce.

If neither settlement terms or re-marriage are at issue; counselling might be a less expensive and less stressful form of closure.

The law doesn't solve everything.
 
DannyBoyD said:
Would be surprised if not already covered in Judicial Separation. If not, then that would be revisiting settlement issues.
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Judicial separation can involve voluntary renunciation of succession rights. Divorce extinguishes them. Doesn't mean that separation settlement issues are being revisited.
DannyBoyD said:
Rather reminds me of Monty Pythons Argument Clinic.
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Why post non-sequiturs so?
 
DannyBoyD said:
If they don't wish to re-marry there's no real reason to divorce.
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Who knows when and how quickly one will want to re-marry?

"Judicial separation" is a bizarre legal hangover from the era when divorce was constitutionally banned but policy had to be put in place for people whose marriages had fully broken down to sort out their affairs.

It's a state of bizarre legal limbo where you very specifically not married to someone anymore but can't marry anyone else either. Why anyone would want to make use of it 27 years after the passage of the divorce referendum is completely beyond me.
 
Depends on the situation the people find themselves.

But at the time (8 years ago according to OP) you could apply for JS after you had been living apart for 12 months. Much faster than waiting to apply for Divorce.

I don't know if, now that the separation time for divorce is 2 rather than 4 years, people are applying for divorce in the first instance.

In any event none of that is of any help to the OP.
 
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