Penal Notices – What are they and how do they work?

In this short video, UK Family Lawyer Ursula Rice discusses Penal Notices – the penalties for missing a Court Deadline or breaching a Court Order.

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

Hi there, my name is Ursula Rice and I’m a solicitor at Family First Solicitors.

Today’s topic of conversation and this little mini blog is about penal notices.

Sounds rude, what are they? A penal notice is all about a penalty for missing a court deadline or breaching a court order. And they indicate to the person on the receiving end of one that if you do not comply with the order that it is attached to, you may be at risk of a serious sanction, such as going to prison or being fined from the assets that you have.

It’s in family proceedings, pretty serious when one of them turns up.

They’re not automatically applied to each order that the court has made. So let’s take an example. The court has ordered you to exchange forms E with your X on X. And on the second of February, you’re ready, you’ve done your Form E, you’ve swapped it by, well, you haven’t swapped it, you’ve told your ex, I’m ready to exchange, and you’ve sent your copy to the court. So you’ve complied as far as you’re able to, because as you know, probably, Forms E’s, they are swapped, so you both have to be ready before you actually hand it over, and that’s to prevent somebody anticipating in a advantageous way what you’re going to say.

It keeps people honest, let’s put it like that.

Anyway, this court deadline’s been breached by your ex and you’re getting pretty worried about this because for one reason or another, you know that delay is in your ex’s hands and helps them rather than you.

Now, about a month later and many emails later, you have pestered and pestered still no form E. What are you going to do? Because what is the point of a court order if it does not bite? So you need to apply for a penal notice which is a notice stuck on the order, the previous order that said form E’s will be exchanged, how do you do that?

You need to apply using a d-eleven form this is presuming you’re in financial proceedings and you simply say, I ask the court to order that the respondent obey paragraph number ten of the order of when the order was made that said four weeks have to be exchanged. And to do that within seven days, so by four p.m., seven days ahead of the date this order is made.

Second thing you ask for is costs, because, of course, Penal notice applications are at risk on costs.

So that means if you are right and you get your notice, the judge is, if you ask them, going to consider whether you should have a costs order.

The other thing you’re going to need to do, if you do that, is you’re going to need to fill out a form N-to-sixty.

If you’re a litigant in person, you can charge nineteen pounds an hour for prepping that penal notice application. And remember, you’re only asking for the costs of the penal notice application, so don’t go all the way back. Don’t forget travel costs, time off from work, and anything else you can think of.

I would have thought most litigant in-person costs, penal notices, applications on an N-to-sixty come to somewhere around five hundred, six hundred pounds. And of course, much more if you use a lawyer.

The other thing, of course, is you need to be right about it and proportionate about it. Don’t just get too trigger happy. Do it when you really, really need it. If you need any help with that, then we can be found at Family First Solicitors.

And if you need to call us, there should be a number coming up at the bottom of the screen and we’ll be happy to help no matter what your family law problem is.

Thanks for listening.