The occasion of a family breakdown, whether a divorce or dissolution or children arrangements, is pretty much universally awful, stressful and upsetting. No one would be likely to suggest otherwise.

However, how people behave during these periods of their lives is a smorgasbord of reactions.

One such recent Court decision highlighted some of the extremes people go to try and avoid a Court order being put into full effect. In this particular situation, (WZ v HZ) the Wife was found to have deliberately frustrated an order for sale of the family home repeatedly through a variety of tricks including stating she had Covid to prevent estate agents from visiting, cancelling viewings, pulling down the “for sale” sign and repeatedly haranguing the estate agents and the conveyancing solicitors until they would no longer assist.

All of that was before her evidence was given in the Court hearing during which she is noted to have, among other things, taken a deliberately long time to turn pages of documents, not answering the questions she was being asked, tearing out pages of the documents and not returning from a comfort break on time forcing the Judge to ask staff to go and find her.

Unsurprisingly, the Judge agreed with the Husband’s point of view that the Wife was preventing the sale of the family home and made an order for her to move out of the house.

The reason for writing this piece is really to highlight that there’s a world of difference between showing you are upset or distressed and going all out to prevent something from happening in defiance of a court order.

It is increasingly common for people to represent themselves during court cases. This is, undoubtedly, scary and at times confusing.  There is a lot of good quality advice available to support people who are not represented by a lawyer (although this isn’t a substitute for good quality legal advice tailored to your particular circumstances).

There are a lot of legal matters where only one person is represented.

A lawyer has a duty to their client, but also to the Court and, to an extent, to the unrepresented person as well. But the unrepresented person also has their own duties: to be honest and comply with the Court’s orders.

People who don’t comply with Court orders may well find themselves on the receiving end of orders to pay some or all of their ex’s legal costs and, in reality, when dealing with an unrepresented person, those costs are often higher than when dealing with someone who has a lawyer helping them.

Lawyers can be very expensive to use, but they can advise and assist you. Not only because they should know what they are talking about when it comes to the law! Sometimes the greatest benefit is having someone who isn’t emotionally tied up in the situation and who can take a step back, be objective and offer other options and paths to resolution. Early legal advice can make a world of difference in lots of situations.

At Geldards LLP, our Family Team is always keen to advise and assist people dealing with family breakdowns, in whatever shape they might take. We have a wide range of experienced lawyers, and mediators as well as an Arbitrator, private FDR “judge” and Early neutral evaluator to have a look at your situation and see what we can do to assist.