Developments in the way the Courts deal with Divorce and Financial Remedy Applications
New divorce are centres being rolled out across the country by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service with the aim of improving efficiency and timescales for the Court processing applications.
There are dedicated centres for each geographical area within England & Wales, and the appropriate centre can be identified using Court Finder on the justice.gov.uk website (HMCTSformfinder.justice.gov.uk/).
The transfer of work to the new centres is being carried out in phases, and cases should continue to be sent to individual courts, until the court notifies otherwise. Once the transfer to the new centres has taken place, applications and correspondence in relation to ongoing cases should continue to be sent to the local court; only new cases will be dealt with by the new Centres.
The London and South East Divorce Centre will be based in Bury St Edmunds. The contact details for the Centre are as follows:
Address: Bury St Edmunds Divorce Centre, 2nd Floor, Triton House, St Andrew’s Street North, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 1TR.
Email: divorceunitsbse@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk.
Telephone: 0344 892 4000.
HMCTS aims to transfer all work to the centre by October 2015, and once this is in place, to process all work within 48 hours of receipt. If this aim is met, this will be a significant improvement, as some local court users currently face a delay in the court processing applications and documents of up to three months.
Urgent applications, such as where there is a jurisdiction race and the timing of issuing the petition is crucial, can continue to be issued at local courts, but the general rule is that all applications should be sent to the divorce centre.
At present, assessment of divorce petitions is carried out by District Judges in each court. At the divorce centres, this work will, instead, be carried out by specially trained legal advisers, which should mean that work is processed more swiftly and district judges are freed up to deal with the more complicated matters. The effect of this should be a more streamlined and efficient system which enables the courts to provide a better and more timely service to all users.
The Divorce Centres will also deal with the issue of most financial remedy applications, unless the matter is particularly complex. Consent Orders will be considered by district judges at the Centre, and in cases where a hearings are necessary, these will be fixed at the court of the applicant’s choice or the court local to the parties if no court is specified.
Complex financial matters will be issued directly with the Central Family Court and a complexity certificate (which is currently being drafted by HMCTS) will need to be completed to indicate that a case should be heard there.
The new Centres mark a significant change in the way the courts deal with family law applications and, if the aims of the new system are met, should lead to a simpler and swifter process for those involved in family proceedings.
Source: HMCTS: London and South East Divorce Centre – Information (May 2015).
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