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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Family Court Decisions (High Court Judges) >> AS v CS (Private FDR) [2021] EWFC 34 (19 April 2021) URL: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2021/34.html Cite as: [2021] 4 WLR 68, [2021] EWFC 34, [2021] WLR(D) 230 |
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version
of the judgment to be published on condition that (irrespective of what is contained in the judgment) in any published
version
of the judgment the anonymity of the members of the family must be strictly preserved. All persons, including representatives of the media, must ensure that this condition is strictly complied with. Failure to do so will be a contempt of court. 2021] EWFC 34 | ||
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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2021 |
B e f o r e :
____________________
| AS |
Applicant (husband) |
|
| - and - |
||
CS | Respondent (wife) |
____________________
Payne Hicks Beech for the respondent (wife)
____________________
VERSION
OF APPROVED JUDGMENT
Crown Copyright ©
Mr Justice Mostyn:
2021
the applicant applied for an order that a directions hearing listed before me on 10 June
2021
should be converted into a FDR and that a new directions hearing should be fixed for a date after 10 July
2021.
The context of this application was that the respondent's solicitors had unilaterally purported to cancel a private FDR fixed before Sir David Bodey to take place on 3 March
2021
and were saying that the earliest new date for a private FDR would be in the autumn.
2021
I ordered that:
"1. The private FDR before Sir David Bodey fixed for 3 March2021,
and approved by order of Mostyn J dated 30 October 2020, shall take place.
2. If the respondent wishes to seek an adjournment of that private FDR she must apply to Mostyn J in proper form. If such an application is made it shall be listed before Mostyn J for a hearing, if necessary at 10:00, with a time estimate of one hour."
variation
to the prescribed procedure; that
variation
was accepted by the court. Thus, on 20 May 2020 I made an order that the first appointment would be dealt with by arbitration on 3 July 2020. However, at paragraph 6 I made a mandatory order that a private FDR would take place on 23 October 2020 before Stewart Leech QC.
2021
before Sir David Bodey – see recital No. 5, and order No. 11.
2021
the respondent's solicitors wrote a letter on 12 February
2021
which stated:
"We do not consider that it is either cost-effective or proportionate to have a private FDR on 3 March2021.
… We therefore propose to jointly approach Sir David's clerks to release him from the hearing whilst your client and the SJE answer our questions. Once they have been sufficiently replied to the private FDR can be relisted".
2021
for an order that the directions appointment fixed before me on 10 June
2021
should be converted into an in-court FDR.
2021
had to be adjourned for further disclosure to take place, then it was incumbent on her to apply to the court for an adjournment in the absence of agreement. Yet she did not do so. She just assumed that she could pull out. She was clearly wrong about that. Thus, she made no application. Instead, the husband, seemingly accepting the entitlement of the wife to pull out unilaterally, has made what my mind is a completely misconceived application to convert an important directions appointment into an in-court FDR.
2021.
I have not had a duly constituted application from the wife to adjourn that private FDR. Therefore, I confirm the order that it will take place.
vicious dispute about children. A fortiori, the sentiment applies where the dispute is about the sufficiency of disclosure in a money case. If nothing else, the parties can identify issues of principle and receive Sir David's early neutral evaluation of them, so that they will know where the land lies when it comes to filling in the gaps in the disclosure later.