How NOT to make a Maintenance Pending Suit Application

In this video Ursula Rice explains how NOT to make a Maintenance Pending Suit Application. For more information on divorce and finances, click here.

No time to watch the video? Here’s the transcript:

Hello, welcome to this short video on maintenance pending suit, title: how not to make a maintenance pending suit application.

Tip number one, always amuse the court by making maintenance pending suit applications without meaning to.

Remember, when you file your Form A and you’re ticking the boxes about what orders you’d like the court to make, if you accidentally tick that first box, maintenance pending suit, the court will list a hearing before your normal set of hearings all about maintenance pending suit.

The more forward-thinking courts ring up local lawyers and go, did you mean to make that application? Because not that long ago, I was one of the people who’d go, yeah, yeah, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Oh, no, what have I done? And then you’d scramble to undo it. So rookie error, don’t tick the box accidentally.

Mostly this video has been inspired by the reported case of DJ Hudson, who very recently made a judgment.

Of course, it’s not binding, but it’s a real classic insight into how the family courts work in on the topic of maintenance pending suit. Name of the judgment is DSP versus MJW.

And here’s what happened; The wife made an application for five hundred pounds a month recently and her final hearing, the final hearing in financial remedy proceedings, is due to finish in July of this year. So we are now in May, so May, June, July, four, three months now. So I’m reckoning this judgment was about an April hearing. So it was a four month gap between the MPS hearing and the final hearing. Those of you who know something about family law will know that MPS, the pending suit bit, means that it finishes at the final hearing. Because at the final hearing, final orders will be made. The application was dismissed.

Let’s just recap on maintenance pending suit applications.

Firstly, you need a D-Eleven. And then depending on where you are in the process, you might need a witness statement or perhaps people will just rely on the forms E. You want to go and make one, go and look it up. The rules set out what you have to do. But the basics, you know, rolling back, these are the basics. You need a strict budget. Your budget should not be stuff for more than now to your final hearing. It should be rent, food, utilities, travel costs. You need to go, this is the list of stuff that I absolutely have to have, and bottom total line of what it will cost. And then, second column, this is the money that I have coming in. My wage, my… Tax credits, my child maintenance, which I presume will be paid as everybody’s watching. A hundred quid a month that my mum gives me because she said she will till this is over, okay?

There should then be a gap. If you’re contemplating maintenance pending suit, you should be going right.

There’s a gap of, for example, five hundred quid a month. You then need to do this bit of magic maths, which says, how many months do I probably have till all this is done and dusted? And you need to times that number of months by the gap. Five hundred pounds times four is two thousand pounds. Hold that thought. All right. Five hundred pounds times twelve months because you’re right at the beginning of the process. That’s a different kettle of fish. That’s six grand. You then need to remind yourself that if the payer has no money, courts do not have a money press at the back and they just print a couple of big ones off for you. Accepting that if somebody’s paying fast and loose with disclosure rules and in any way looks shady, the court will make a presumption that they can pay and make the order. Cross check with Ruben and Ruben, the most in judgment, which is a real kind of common sense things to think about when you’re doing maintenance pending suit. And step up. Is this proportionate? That’s the question you should have. If you are fighting for two thousand pounds, and both of you are paying legal bills. Just remember that the loser will pay the winner’s costs. That’s what happened in DSP versus MJW because the wife was not proportionate. She spent out of the matrimonial pot, both hers and his costs, thirteen thousand pounds to get two thousand pounds. That’s mad. And that’s what Judge Hudson said. He said this reflects really badly on family lawyers, and it does.

Just remember, proportionality is everything in all of your applications, especially those satellite applications, because they cost lots of money and it’s not the main thing.

The main thing is the main thing. So just remember, two ends of the spectrum. If you are in a no money situation and you’ve got to have it, maybe an MPS is appropriate. If you are in arguing over how many butlers you’re going to have, fill your boots, go and get an MPS all day long. Lose, win, who cares? Everybody’s got enough money. But the reality is that most of the time you’re far, far better off or your family, and all right, as a side effect for the other side as well, being creative. Can you beg, borrow or steal? Don’t steal the money. If your advisors aren’t cautious about MPS, then query whether they’re being proportionate. Just remember, think and think again before you get that MPS application and run off the court.

Thanks for watching. Do follow our YouTube channel if you would like to see more videos on topics of interest. And remember, we also run the Family First Forum at one thirty every Friday on Facebook. Thank you.