County court hearing

fedupdad

Not sure that this is the right place to post it but here goes.

The short version is that I currently owe some maintenance arrears but despite being them off (with agreement from the court) over 12 months my ex wants a lump sum instead of monthly payments.

I have today received a order from a county court "inviting" me to attend a hearing in a couple of months. I have to disclose my income and fill in a means statement form.

The problem is that it has been ordered that I also have to send my ex a copy of the means statement form. This form will contain very personal details about me and my new partner. Such as bank account details, mortgage details and even my car registration.

I now wish to just pay off the arrears in full by the hearing date and my question is will that then mean I will avoid the court hearing and not have to provide my income and expenditure to my ex?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Guest101

fedupdad wrote: »

Not sure that this is the right place to post it but here goes.

The short version is that I currently owe some maintenance arrears but despite being them off (with agreement from the court) over 12 months my ex wants a lump sum instead of monthly payments.

I have today received a order from a county court "inviting" me to attend a hearing in a couple of months. I have to disclose my income and fill in a means statement form.

The problem is that it has been ordered that I also have to send my ex a copy of the means statement form. This form will contain very personal details about me and my new partner. Such as bank account details, mortgage details and even my car registration.

I now wish to just pay off the arrears in full by the hearing date and my question is will that then mean I will avoid the court hearing and not have to provide my income and expenditure to my ex?

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Well yes, you'll reach an out of court settlement.

Delree

Yep pay off the arrears and all this goes away.

silvercar

If you had done this in the first place, she wouldn't have needed to take you to court.

Belenus

silvercar wrote: »

If you had done this in the first place, she wouldn't have needed to take you to court.

I thought of asking why he is in arrears if he has the money but we don't know the full story and these things can be very complicated.

Maybe he was being denied his rights too such as access to children etc.

fedupdad, I hope you can get whatever the situation is resolved.

silvercar

Belenus wrote: »

I thought of asking why he is in arrears if he has the money but we don't know the full story and these things can be very complicated.

Maybe he was being denied his rights too such as access to children etc.

fedupdad, I hope you can get whatever the situation is resolved.

I accept what you are saying, but with no further information, all we have to go on is that as soon as there may be a court requirement to reveal finances, the money is found.

fedupdad

Silvercar,

The long and short of it is that my ex wife abducted my kids and took them to Ireland. I fought an abduction battle and then had a maintenance order issued against me in Ireland without me even being present.

I fought both cases and lost both. The maintenance order was transmitted to the UK and my local court wrote to me in July this year. I have been paying the set amount of maintenance plus a contribution to the arrears ever since, this was agreed with the court.

However my ex being greedy wants the arrears as a lump sum rather than in monthly payments and has asked the court here to hear the case, that is where I am now. I dont want her to know anything personal about me as in my view she has no right.

So I just want to pay off the arrears (via a credit card) so that I do not have to disclose my financial information to her. I would like to think that anyone in the same position as me would do the same.

It is the old story of the courts backing the mum and then the mum saying you cant see the kids and you must pay me in anycase.

Oh well despite all that I am getting married next year to the love of my life, this is another reason we wont to pay it off, it allows us to get on with our lives.

So should the court case go away if I just pay the arrears off?

dancingfairy

I don't know. Clearly the debt won't exist but how that relates to an order to attend court for question/aural examination I don't know. It would be wise to get some help from someone like National Debtline or Stepchange and find out whether you would need some proof of the discharge of the debt and whether you have to make a formal application to court for the application for you to attend for questioning be struck out. The last thing you want is to be in contempt of court (especially if you are up against an ex who wants to play games).
df

TBagpuss

It depends. You need to read the application carefully. If the application is *solely* in relation to the arrears, then if you pay them off, it should be possible to request that the case is discharged.
However, if the application also requests that the maintenance is reviewed then paying off the arrears would not change that. IS this simply child support? Presumably given the Irish connection you are not dealing with the CSA? If your ex beliveds that you are paying the wrong amount of maintenance then she may want the review hearing to go ahead.

If you are concerned about disclosing your personal details you can black out parts of the account numbers, for instance (leave the last 3 or 4 digits visible ).

If you do pay off the arrears, be clear that you have borrowed the money so that it doesnt not appear that you have got more assets than you've disclosed.

And make sure you have a paper trail in case she disputes that the money was paid - a direct transfer to her account with the reference "maintenace arrears" for instance, followed up with a letter stating the amount and date paid and that you believe this clears the arrears in full. .

Guest101

How did you lose the abduction case?

presumebly you didnt give permission for her to go to ireland (or specifically for the kids to go) and you have parental responsibility

Sorry just abit confused as it seems fairly straight forward, you have rights, and those should be enforced.

Your partners details are not relevent anyway (unless you're married?).

I think as this case relates to an international factor, money invested in a solicitor now will save you some in the long term.

Do you have the money available, rather than taking a loan / remortgage? edit just saw - via credit card. So you dont actually have the means to pay this without endagering your long term financial position. The court would not make such an order.

fedupdad

Thanks for your replies.

Tbagpuss, the hearing is just about the arrears because I have already been told in writing that the judge does not have any powers to relook at the original maintenance order from Ireland.
The court have asked me to put my proposals in writing to them which I will do over the weekend. I am hopeful that the hearing wont go ahead but even if it does I will still pay the arrears off.

Guest101, your right I have parental responsibility but despite a court order saying she couldnt leave she did. The judge here did nothing, in fact he didnt even find her in contempt of his order. When your in that position you realise very quickly that the courts will never be on your side. You was able to claim she had family there which would enable her to work, two years later she is still sat on her !!!! chasing me for money. In the end I just want to pay it all off to stop the hassle of her taking me to court. It is a game to her and over the last four years I wouldnt be able to tell you how many times I have been in court. It is simply loads. She issues a summons and I have to attend, it is quite unbelieveable. But despite all that life is good and hopefully she will leave me alone eventually.