MATRIMONIAL APPLICATIONS IN THE MASTER’S COURT
DIRECTIONS OF PRESIDING MASTER
1. Following a meeting between representatives of the family practitioners and the Presiding Master on 18.09.2014, it was agreed that during the Matrimonial Master’s absence the Directions below shall apply on an interim basis. The purpose of these Directions is to ensure so far as possible that matrimonial courts continue to run and to conduct business reasonably expeditiously and efficiently against a background of very limited financial resources and the high workload carried by other Masters. The Presiding Master’s function primarily concerns deployment, including taking such steps to ensure that all courts continue as listed as available resources permit. He works directly to the LCJ through his Office. It is not intended that he act as interim Matrimonial Master but he will make himself available to practitioners with concerns to be addressed or suggestions to make.
2. There will be 5 full time Masters (the new Chancery Master will not be used) and 5 Deputy Masters available to cover the matrimonial lists. Masters will be used to the extent that they are able to contribute having regard to their own workloads and lists. Deputies will be used to the extent that funding is available to pay for them. So far as the Masters are concerned all are already at full capacity so any time given to matrimonial will come off the time available for them to do their own work and not from spare capacity. All Divisions and Offices in the High Court will therefore be effected to some extent, with delays in hearings etc. The Presiding Master will ensure that the burden is spread evenly among the five Masters so that no single Master or Division or Office suffers disproportionately or unfairly. Unfortunately, the contribution by the Masters now agreed with the LCJ is the maximum that can be managed and is unlikely to increase. Given the constraints and financial limitations it cannot be guaranteed that every need will be met. The same applies to the other Divisions where waiting times will inevitably slip because of Masters’ commitment to matrimonial work.
3. Subject to availability of funding, measures are in place to ensure all courts will be covered until the end of term. Deputy cover is in place until 14.10.14. Thereafter 5 Masters will each provide 2 days in each four working week period of 20 days with the LCJ’s Office to fund Deputies for the remainder. Masters’ days will be full days in the sense that they will each devote their attention that day exclusively to matrimonial work rather than try and fit it around their other work. The Masters’ days have already been fixed and Operations Branch are now in contact with the Deputies in order to fill the remaining days. In November we will review the situation so far as the post-Christmas situation is concerned.
4. Each Master and Deputy will manage his or her own court as they see fit, but the Presiding Master will encourage consensus as to the general approach to be adopted to ensure consistency and that best use is made of such resources as we have. Masters have emphasised that they are reluctant to take time away from their own work, and face criticism from their own Liaison Committees, if the time they give to the Matrimonial Division is not seen to be properly used. Therefore, whilst the present situation prevails there will be some changes necessary in the way that matrimonial court business is managed. These changes are reflected in the following Directions which shall take effect immediately.
Directions
i Parties are strongly encouraged to commence contests earlier in the day. Unless there is good reason to the contrary contests should be ready to commence by 11.30am or at latest 12.00 noon. Parties attempting to commence a contest after that time may find that they have lost priority or may not be heard that day.
ii FDRs must be dealt with at the time when they are listed with strict adherence to the requirements to lodge core issues in good time.
iii Adjournment periods between reviews etc will generally be longer than at present in order to reduce the number of appearances and avoid unnecessary listing. There will generally be fewer review and mention hearings in each case than at present.
iv There will be no capacity for allowing 2 consecutive days for hearings. Where a case requires a second day’s hearing then at the end of the first day it should be adjourned into the next available day when the Master or Deputy who commenced to hear the case is scheduled to sit, when it will have priority. If that date does not suit, then it will be adjourned until the next day that Master or Deputy is scheduled to sit. It may be necessary on occasion to adjourn second day hearings to a date to be fixed if the Master’s or Deputy’s next scheduled day is yet to be fixed or is unsuitable to the parties. This applies to cases already listed for 2 consecutive days.
v Monday to Thursday Lists will be capped at 25 – 30 cases in total, with a maximum of 3 FDRs and 2 contests each day. This will be offset by normal listing on Fridays. The practice of very short Friday lists will stop forthwith and the Office will immediately move to increase Friday listing.
vi All cases in the daily list, but in particular contested matters, must be mentioned to the Master within a reasonable time after the court commences. The practice of some counsel of omitting to mention a contest, whether interlocutory or substantive hearing, until late morning or in the afternoon, will no longer be accepted. The Master is entitled to know whether or not a contested matter is proceeding, or indeed that a matter is contested, sufficiently early to allow him or her to plan ahead for the day. Where any such matter remains unmentioned until after 12.00 noon the file may be returned to the Matrimonial Office and the Master may refuse to deal with it that day.
vii In order to ease pressure on daily lists, until further notice, applications to adjourn contested matters on consent, including substantive hearings and interlocutory matters may be made in writing to the Matrimonial Office, as long as they are made at least 4 clear working days before the listing. The letter will be placed before the Master or Deputy sitting that day for confirmation that the matter is adjourned. In the case of FDRs, where an FDR will not be ready to proceed on the date listed the parties should notify the court at least 4 working days in advance.
viii There will be provision for a limited number of the more complex ancillary reliefs to be referred directly to a Judge (Mr Justice O’Hara). Parties requesting this should mention it to a Master or Deputy at an early review hearing and he or she will liaise with the Matrimonial Office as to the Judge’s availability to deal with the matter.
CJ McCorry
Presiding Master
22nd Sept. 2014