REMO-Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Order

AnxiousMum

How is it worded in your divorce, and what document is it on? It may very well be that you already have an order for child support through the courts, and just need to apply to have it enforced abroad.

4m1n4

The other thing to realise about ancillary relief is that you can use it in conjunction with the CSA. For example, you can ask for a "top up" from the CSA amount in order to pay for things like private schooling. If you were to lose your job - you could also use an ancillary relief application to ask for a "carer's allowance". The thing to remember is that you have to show that he can afford the minimum the CSA assessed originally and more! The CSA calculation is usually the minimum amount they will reward.

4m1n4

Dear Fee Fee

If your agreement is not a consent order, I think the best way to make it a consent order would be to start the ancillary relief process and hope that your ex will consent to turn the original agreement into a consent order. If he refuses to do this he will have have a very difficult time in court and would have "to show cause why this concluded agreement should not be made an order of the court"

FeeFee

Hi
I have had a look through the paperwork and the agreement does not form part of the consent order, its a separate document "statement of arrangements for children".
Can I action ancillary relief even though he is no longer UK resident? I know he won't consent - he has told me that he will quit his job and move to the middle east if/when the courts etc catch up with him or this starts to impact upon his lifestyle....
Thanks
Fiona

4m1n4

I have done a little bit of research (I didn't go through a divorce - I only really know about the Children's Act) You probably do not have a consent order however via the "ancillary relief" route it should not be too difficult to ask the judge to make that agreement a court order. When filling out the forms I would ask for a lump sum to cover the time he hasn't paid since the agreement and for on going payments of the amount already agreed. I would attach the agreement to your application.

You file the docs with the local court and serve him in the Netherlands. You will be given a court date for the FDR hearing but it will save him time and money if he just consents to you both making the original agreement an order of the court ie (a consent order) and that can be done on the day (don't forget to put the arrears into the consent order!). If he won't, the judge will give directions for Form Es (financial statements) and a written statement. If he goes down that path he will lose and you will most probably be awarded costs etc,etc. You will still have an enforcement problem if he moves to ME.....but again worth a shot

knithappens

HI - i just came across this thread, and am so glad, my ex husband is now in the states we have been divorced for over a year but split up when i was pregnant with my now 19 month old, I did get the forms once from court and filled them in, but did not send them as i had no address for him, plus stress of the divorce etc at the time. I know he lives in petal mississipi now, but i have no address, I can provide his SSN ect and past addresses but not a current one, will this be a major issue, any help or advice onthis will be most helpful, I am goign to call my local court tomorrow and ask for the forms to be resent, as i have not had a penny from him since finding out I was pregnant, now birthday or xmas gifts for little one, but i did recieve anemail from him on valentines telling me that he just broke up with his girlfriend - I am not even going to comment on that lol

FeeFee

4m1n4 wrote: »

I have done a little bit of research (I didn't go through a divorce - I only really know about the Children's Act) You probably do not have a consent order however via the "ancillary relief" route it should not be too difficult to ask the judge to make that agreement a court order. When filling out the forms I would ask for a lump sum to cover the time he hasn't paid since the agreement and for on going payments of the amount already agreed. I would attach the agreement to your application.

You file the docs with the local court and serve him in the Netherlands. You will be given a court date for the FDR hearing but it will save him time and money if he just consents to you both making the original agreement an order of the court ie (a consent order) and that can be done on the day (don't forget to put the arrears into the consent order!). If he won't, the judge will give directions for Form Es (financial statements) and a written statement. If he goes down that path he will lose and you will most probably be awarded costs etc,etc. You will still have an enforcement problem if he moves to ME.....but again worth a shot

Thanks so much for your help - I have downloaded Form A with the intention of filing at the county court tomorrow. It is very basic however - would you recommend including supporting documentation such as the 'statement of arrangements for children' / decree absolut etc., or do I save that for the court hearing?
Much appreciated:T

4m1n4

Knithappens - It sounds like you got divorced in the UK? Did you name him on your child's birth certificate? Has he acknowledged the child at all in any correspondence? It sounds like you will have to use REMO and UIFSA in the US to track him down and then establish a maintenance order in the US. Google UIFSA and there is a world of information on the process. They can track him down via his SS no and his past addresses. Establishing an order is definitely more difficult than just enforcing an order that was created here, but given he has gone AWOL, it doesn't sound like he would participate in any court process in this jurisdiction. He has to be party to the action and so the only way to do it is for his local court to take over the process. They will however dial you into the process and allow you to just fax documents through etc (and at least the whole thing is in English). The US is pretty aggressive about getting child support established and enforced but the only major difference I can see is that in the majority of the states in the US they take both parent's income into consideration when setting the actual amount, whereas here whilst I had to provide all my financial details they were just concerned with the costs of the child and his ability to pay. The US treats the UK as if it were just another state and so when you look at all the UIFSA details it applies to you too.

Firstly you need to do the forms via your local court (check out the other posts on this forum for that one). The local court then sends them through to the REMO office. From what I can see on this forum and from my own experience the bottleneck in the process is not actually with the REMO office but with your local court. My personal experience was that my local court sat on my file for over 3 months, refused to answer the phone and even today they take weeks to send any responses through to me even though REMO sent them through to them weeks earlier. Via the internet I got all the numbers of the local court in the US handling my case and speak to them regularly for updates rather than using the UK guys.

As soon as you start the process, the clock starts ticking....it may take a while but it is definitely worth a shot

4m1n4

FeeFee wrote: »

Thanks so much for your help - I have downloaded Form A with the intention of filing at the county court tomorrow. It is very basic however - would you recommend including supporting documentation such as the 'statement of arrangements for children' / decree absolut etc., or do I save that for the court hearing?
Much appreciated:T

Definitely add the supporting documentation

knithappens

Thank you so much for the reply. I think at the time of the divorce the thouhgt of it just realy put me off.

4m1n4 wrote: »

Knithappens - It sounds like you got divorced in the UK? Yes I got divorced here - basically did it myself he did nto contest anythign just signed the papers agreed that our daughter would reside with me, no financial arangements were made.



Did you name him on your child's birth certificate? Yes he is named ont he borth certificate - we were married at the time so he is added as her father

Has he acknowledged the child at all in any correspondence? I have letters, emails etc and pics of him with her he has seen her for a total of 2 days of her life.

I will google UIFSA now - thank you so much for all the information xx