motion for judgement in default of defence for divorce

keshie73

Hi guys a quick second opinion of my divorce procedings.
I got a mutual consentual separation in the circuit court in 2007 in which i was the Respondent.i filed a divorce sometime back roughly a year ago in which my ex is the defendant. I have filed 2 motion of default in defence against my ex to date. This is going to be my third motion. Even costs to me is reserved.

According to my solicitor this is norm and the county registrar will allow for extension even without my consent. Is this true? My ex works for circuit court judge's wife and my solicitor knows the circuit judge well. Could this be something that i should worry about?
I have 2 children from my previous marriage in which i have access to children 7days every forthnight and €120 weekly maintenance. I have moved on and have another child with my partner. And it wasnt plain sailing to date with my ex

Thanks for any feedback

FreudianSlippers

Is the County Registrar striking out your motions or just adjourning them? If s/he is awarding costs it sounds like striking out, which may be unusual. I wouldn't be surprised if they were adjourned 2 or 3 times (:rolleyes: at the system) but you shouldn't get costs.

I wonder would the County Registrar in the next return date be willing to mark a further adjournment peremptory? IIRC the CR cannot grant the divorce, so I'm quite surprised that you haven't been put into the actual Judge's list.

Not to bash on you OP, but either there is something missing from your story or you don't have all the facts just right... something isn't adding up entirely.

keshie73

Freudian when the 1st motion was filed they were given extension of time of 6 weeks( they never filed for extension of time)
When the 6 weeks elapsed 2nd motion was filed the county registrar struck out and made an order that the defendant file in 7days and reserved, cost of this motion to hearing date
I got a letter yesterday informing the defendant failed to file their defence yet again ( she did not attend both motion, on the 2nd motion her solicitor attended)and that i have an option to file another motion now or when the court starts in october and they will get further 7 days it seems for the 3rd motion
Thanks

FreudianSlippers

Yep, there is something wrong there. The first Motion was adjourned 6 weeks by the sounds of it because there was no appearance by the defendant or legal representative, so the second return date is still the first Motion.

Now the question is why your motion was stuck out with costs reserved (which does not mean you got costs) when the defendant's solicitor attended on the second return date (note: there is no need for the defendant to be present if their solicitor is attending). This is what I would be querying; why was it not a further adjournment of your motion, what was wrong with your motion that it was struck out?

If I were to hazard a guess, your solicitor brought the default motion too early and the defendant's solicitor pointed this out on the second return date. Pure speculation though, as I just don't know everything... but something went wrong on your end.

To put it another way, in normal circumstances on the second return date, the defendant's solicitor would either show up with a defence, the motion would be struck out and costs awarded to the plaintiff -or- the defendant's solicitor would have a compelling reason they needed more time, the matter would be adjourned again for a further 2 or 3 weeks and no costs would be awarded on that date.