For further information about witnesses at the employment tribunal, see Practice Note: Witnesses—employment tribunals. A party may wish to call a person as a witness to give evidence in support of their claim, or defence, at the employment tribunal. In England and Wales it is usual for the tribunal to give directions as to the exchange of witness statements as part of case management arrangements, requiring the parties to prepare, exchange and lodge witness statements in advance of the hearing. Where no directions have been given, the parties should prepare and, ideally, exchange written statements from their respective witnesses in advance of the hearing anyway, as the tribunal generally prefers evidence to be presented by means of written statements and these are normally read in advance by the tribunal. For further information, see Practice Note:

A party to proceedings, like any other adult, is entitled to change their name at any time, whether before or after a financial consent order is made by the court. If the order has been prepared but not yet made by the court, the order can be amended prior to filing simply to recite the ‘new’ name of the party, eg ‘AC’, formerly known as ‘AB’. If the order has already been made by the court using the party’s ‘marital’ name (AB) rather than the name now used by the party (AC), it should be adequate

Section 25(1) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) provides that the first consideration of the court when deciding whether to exercise its powers under MCA 1973, ss 23, 24, 24A, 24B and 24E and, if so, in what manner, is the welfare while a minor of any ‘child of the family’ who has not attained the age of 18. MCA 1973, s 52(1) defines a ‘child of the family’ as a child of both the parties or any other child, not being a child placed with the parties as foster parents, who has been treated by both the parties as a child of their family. In the event a dispute arises as to whether a child was indeed treated as a child of the family, the

The court has wide powers to divide the assets of a marriage upon its breakdown. These powers are accessed by an application to court in Form A for a financial order. The powers of the court are contained within the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) and any order must be made in accordance with those powers. The court can order that one party pay periodical payments to the other for such term and in such amount as it considers fit, make a lump sum payment, transfer property, and divide up pensions. Property adjustment orders are governed by MCA 1973, s 24. The jurisdiction to make such an order arises after decree nisi. ‘Property’ is defined widely, and while it will in many cases relate to the family home, it can include council tenancies or

Where a party to financial proceedings has a new partner, and says they have no knowledge as to their partner's income and capital, the question to be considered is whether the court can make an order for disclosure? Family Procedure Rules 2010, SI 2010/2955 (FPR 2010) offers a mechanism for obtaining information about a new partner’s resources in some circumstances. This application is governed by FPR 2010, SI 2010/2955, 21.2, which provides that such an application may be made without notice, and must be supported by evidence. An order for disclosure may not be made in order to compel a person to produce any document that person could not be compelled to produce at a final hearing. Such an order will only be made where ‘disclosure is necessary in order to dispose fairly of the proceedings or to save costs’. This is in contrast

The conventional way to enforce compliance with a directions order would be to seek the addition of a penal notice and an order for costs. An application for a penal notice may be made in Form D11—Application notice (PDF Format) using the procedure under the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955, Pt 18. See Practice Notes: • FPR 2010, Part 18—other applications in proceedings • FPR 2010, Part 18 applications—procedure FPR 2010, PD 37A, para 1.1 sets out the prescribed form of wording that must be used in relation to a judgment or order which restrains a party from doing an act or requires an act to be done, ie: ‘If you the within-named [ ] do not comply with this order you may be held to

What is the nature of an undertaking given to the court? An undertaking given by a person to the court to pay money to another party is not the same as an order made by the court for him to make such payment. The main difference is that an order of the court may be enforced by the party in whose favour the order has been made by any of the methods in the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). An undertaking cannot be enforced by such means. An undertaking is a promise given to the court and to no one else. It may only be enforced by the sanctions of imprisonment, sequestration of assets or a fine on the ground of contempt of court. Subject

The powers of the court in dividing the assets of spouses on divorce are wide-ranging and powerful. The court has a very broad discretion provided to it by section 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) subject to the statutory requirement of fairness and the principles established in case law—broadly speaking the court is seeking to achieve equality of outcome unless there is good reason to depart from equality, considering MCA 1973, s 25 factors and the common law concepts of needs, compensation and sharing (see, generally, Miller v Miller; McFarlane v McFarlane and subsequent authorities). Need comes first and may justify a departure from equality if

The question, which is expressed in general terms, may be broken down into three parts. First, where a party transfers their interest in the former matrimonial home without neither legal advice nor full disclosure will that still be treated as a marital asset in the financial proceedings? The answer is yes. Until an order has been made in respect of the financial remedy proceedings then it will still be treated as a marital asset and so susceptible to any order that may be made. Cooper-Hohn v Hohn explains that fairness in the overall

Appealing party wall awards The Party Wall etc Act 1996 (PWA 1996) makes provision in relation to party walls. PWA 1996, s 10 provides a mechanism for resolving disputes concerning party walls. The dispute resolution procedure, which is laid down in PWA 1996, s 10, provides for the appointment of a surveyor (or surveyors) to settle any dispute by making a party wall award. PWA 1996, s 10(17) provides that either party to the dispute may appeal to the County Court against the award and that the time limit for a party issuing such an appeal is: ‘…the period of fourteen days beginning

There are two courts in Scotland where actions of divorce and dissolution can be raised—the sheriff court local to one or both of the parties, and the Court of Session. The sheriff courts are grouped into sheriffdoms, of which there are six in Scotland. The jurisdictional requirements differ slightly in the sheriff court. Jurisdictional requirements are set out in the Domicile and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1973 (DMPA 1973) and Council Regulation (EC) 2201/2003 (Brussels II bis). The Court of Session will have jurisdiction where either the Scottish courts have jurisdiction under Brussels II bis, or (more rarely) the action is an ‘excluded action’, ie

It is not clear when the alleged mis-selling took place, but it may be that there is an allegation that there was a breach of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Conduct of Business requirements applicable at the time of the mortgage endowment sale. The section 138D of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA 2000) provides that a private person, who has suffered a loss as a result of a rule breach by an authorised person, has an actionable suit against that authorised person. We refer you to Practice Note: