Court not entitled to know whether offers made or indication given at private FDR (BC v BC)
Family analysis: Mr Justice Peel provides a user-friendly judgment confirming that paragraph 8 of the Financial Remedies Court Primary Principles document (which applies following an unsuccessful private FDR (pFDR)) goes too far, and that the court is not entitled to know whether offers were made or an indication given at a pFDR. The judgment is a corrective to that paragraph, and to its previous interpretation at circuit judge level, which may have led to a practice developing in some quarters of litigants ‘asserting that the pFDR ended when the other party left after the indication without further negotiating’. It is also further authority on the privileged nature of the FDR (and pFDR) process, and makes clear that only the basic factual details of the appointment are disclosable, ie whether or not it took place, whether both parties attended, the identities of the evaluator, where it took place and the duration. Written by David Wilkinson, solicitor at Slater Heelis.