Royal Court of Jersey
FD21/02
Practice Direction (Family Division)
Miscellaneous provisions in relation to family practice
To ensure
uniformity in practice, the family judges set out below expectations as to the
production and content of miscellaneous documents in family proceedings across
the Royal Court.
1.
Where counsel
are instructed, application forms should be completed, checked and filed by
lawyers. Too many application forms are completed by hand, only partially
completed and occasionally illegible. Application forms must be checked by
advocates to ensure that they are complete and are clear.
2.
Application
forms should contain all the information sought by that particular form,
including the address of the respondent/s. Where an advocate is unable to
include the address of a respondent to a particular application or suit, a
covering letter should be produced for the court's benefit explaining any
difficulties arising, identifying the manner in which advocates propose serving
such documentation or enclosing a further application seeking such orders as
may be required from the court to assist with service e.g. an order for deemed
or substituted service.
3.
Requests for
further information and documentation
3.1 the court does not require
these documents to be filed at court (in the expectation that the replies will
be included in the bundle for any eventual hearing). The court expects replies to set out the
original request followed by the reply to that request in bold so that the
request for further information and the reply are in the same document and
easily followed;
3.2 advocates should supply
.docx (i.e. Word) copies of their requests for further information to the other
party so that the insertion of replies on the same document can be easily produced;
3.3 replies to requests for
further information and documentation should include a statement of truth and
be signed by counsel or the party and dated. A statement of truth by the
deponent should be in the following form "The contents of this my statement/reply
are true to the best of my knowledge or belief (I am authorised to sign this
statement on behalf of …..)".
3.4 the court does not wish
parties to produce "schedules of deficiencies". A party's
unreasonable or unexplained failure to provide documentation or information by
way of reply should form the subject of an application to the court if the
default cannot be dealt with by the parties. For the avoidance of doubt, costs
are at large should the court find that a party has unreasonably failed to
provide information or documentation which is required to determine or settle a
case.
4.
Chronologies
should only be produced if the court has given permission for parties to do so
and, if so, they should contain a
succinct summary of events relevant to the dispute, and should not normally
include a recital of steps or exchanges in litigation.
5.
The court
orders open offers to be exchanged and filed in all financial disputes. Such
offers should be limited to a recital of the orders sought by that party from
the court when disposing of the matter on an interim or final basis and should
not contain any narrative background,
comment or reasons for seeking any such orders.
6.
Where the
court orders parties to file skeleton
arguments, these should contain a succinct summary of a party's case, should
refer to any relevant law and
documentary evidence as applicable to that case by reference by page number to
the bundle which will be electronically filed (in most cases) by CaseLines.
7.
Where
advocates are required to sign applications, documents, or witness signatures,
advocates must ensure that they print, type or stamp their name below their
signature so that the court can easily identify their signature.
8.
Advocates
should ensure that all affidavits or statements of evidence including
affidavits of means are marked in the top right-hand corner on the front page
with the date that the document was sworn or signed.
This Practice Direction will come into force with immediate effect.
14 July 2021