Making a new court application to vary the old order

 

Here you are looking at going back to court to secure a new order.

 

There is uncertainty.  The court has a free hand as to what to do.  It may approach matters in the same way or a different way

So predicting precisely what will happen is not usually possible. 

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• There are costs involved in the process.  It may well be intrusive and it will take time and effort.  Sometimes the atmosphere between the parties is difficult which may make settling the case harder (and mean that it will run longer through the process, increasing the costs).
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  The order may go up or down and so getting the best input possible as to the strength of your case (either at court or in the negotiations) is a crucial first task

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Step 1: find the order

Find the original court document - “the order” - and study what parts of it remain outstanding.  Usually your lawyer will have provided you with this and if not you can usually obtain a copy from the court.

 

Step 2: the situation at the time

You can’t ask for a variation without showing that there has been a change of circumstance.  So the first step is to prove what the situation was when the first order was made. 

• Where your order was made by agreement without a court attendance, almost always, there will be a “statement of information” or “form D081”.    Ideally find this or again get a copy from the court.
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  Where the order was made at court (for example at a final hearing or at a financial dispute resolution hearing) then there may be no such document.  However, your lawyers will have summarised the finances and you may have a copy of this document.  If not try to get the information from your solicitor if you had one).
  
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Step 3: the situation now

It is obviously harder to piece together the situation now – whilst you will know your own finances, you may know much less about the other party’s situation – but think through what you do know and what you can be reasonably sure about … the better the information, the clearer the advice can be at stage 4 and the easier it should be to make a decision about what to do for the best.

Stage 4: advice

Now you are equipped to get advice.  Going back to the barrister who helped you may be a good choice.  Others may prefer to get a new view. 

At Family Law in Partnership, we know that any initiative must be fully justified in terms of the scale of the likely benefits and the costs of securing them.

We aim to provide an efficient and economic assessment of the prospects of success, given either by one of our directors or through arranging an early appointment with counsel.