The ever increasing delays to the Court process is taking its toll on people who now have the desire to take greater control over the length of financial proceedings, many couples are now turning to Financial Dispute Resolution hearings (FDRs) in order to come to an agreement regarding their financial disputes.
What is an FDR hearing?
The FDR Hearing is a key stage of financial proceedings in the Family Court and at that Hearing the Judge will give an indication as to the likely outcome if the case were to progress to a Final Hearing. Following that indication the parties then negotiate to reach an agreement by consent to which the Court can give its approval.
Since the Court process is somewhat slow and over-burdened the former President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby described private FDRs as:
“a simple concept. The parties pay for a Financial Remedy Specialist to act as a private FDR Judge. That person may be a solicitor, barrister or retired Judge. The private FDR takes place at time convenient to the parties, usually in solicitor’s offices or barrister’s chambers, and a full day is normally set aside to maximise the prospects of settlement. It takes the place of the in-Court FDR”.
Advantages of a private FDR:
1. You do not have to wait months for a Court date. Both parties can choose a date convenient to them both.
2. The surroundings of a private FDR are far more conducive to an agreement being reached, as the private FDR will not take place in a busy Court building but usually at a solicitor’s office where refreshments and lunch can be provided.
3. Parties do not have to wait many hours behind other cases on the day itself as the private FDR Judge is there purely for the benefit of the parties only and both parties have access to that Judge for the entire day as opposed to just one hour of Court appointed time. There is a guarantee that the private FDR Judge will have read all the papers and be fully prepared.
4. You can choose the identity of the Judge who is there to give an indication. Both parties will need to agree on the identity of the private FDR Judge who is normally an ex-Judge or barrister or solicitor. Both parties will need to pay equally for the fee of that Judge. Normally private FDRs feel less adversarial.
If an agreement is reached, then after the private FDR a Clean-Break Consent Order is drawn up and submitted to the Court on-line for a Judge within the Court process to approve.
How can we help?
Louise Scott is a Senior Associate in our Family Law team, advising on divorce, dissolution of civil partnerships, finances and private children disputes.
As a firm, we regularly advise on successful private FDR hearings.
If you would like to discuss private FDR, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your circumstances in more detail and give you more information about the services that our family law solicitors can provide along with details of our hourly rates and fixed fee services.
For more information or advice, please call Louise or another member of our team in Derby, Leicester or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or contact us via our online form.