The Documents for the Court Process
This page gives an overview of the documents you are going to have to write for the court process. More detail about each of these documents will be on other pages, including how to do them.
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Professor Polly says: “I do know how scary this all looks. The best thing is to be really organised. Get yourself a folder and file dividers and list all your deadlines on a calendar, and give yourself a to-do list. Getting organised from the start will really help you later on, and it’s a lot less intimidating when you do it early, bit by bit.”
Remember that most cases end with agreement at or between these hearings, so you may well not have to do all these things in the end.
Filing and serving
All of these documents are filed and served. This means:
You send them to your ex
You send them to the court scanning centre at Harlow using your scan cover sheet.
While some of these documents don’t need to be sent to court until the day before the hearing I can tell you that those won’t get to the judge via the scanning centre on time. Send them earlier and bring hard enough copies of those last minute documents for everyone to the hearing.
It’s also pretty unhelpful to the other party to send things at the last permitted moment. While you may want to be unhelpful to them, things will get resolved more quickly if everyone knows what they are doing.
If you want to know the rules and guidance we’ve used to create this document look at:
Family Procedure Guide (March 2026 version)
The document | What it does | When it is done | Who does it |
|---|---|---|---|
Form A
| Starts the contested financial remedy process | To start things off | Either party |
Allocation questionnaire | Decides what level of judge will hear the case (it will usually be a district judge) | When filing form A | The applicant, but only if they have a lawyer. Litigants in person can ignore this step. |
Form E | It’s the form you use to give information about your financial position (financial disclosure) | When the court issues the form A it will give you the deadline, which will be 35 days before the FDA | Each party does their own separate document |
Form G | Very short form telling the court whether you can combine the first and second hearings | 14 days before FDA | Each party does their own separate document |
Form H | Estimate of your legal costs and expenses. Yours may well be pretty much blank. | 1 day before FDA | Each party does their own separate document |
House valuation | Valuation of the family home | 14 days before FDA | The applicant to file a joint market appraisal of the family home (or each party to file separate market appraisals, with explanation) |
Property particulars | Using Rightmove or Zoopla, details of three properties you think would be suitable for you, and three suitable for your ex | 14 days before FDA | Each party does their own separate document |
Mortgage capacity info | Information about how much a bank or building society would lend you as a mortgage | 14 days before FDA | Ideally this should be done jointly |
Service on trustees and mortgagees | Send the form A to your pension providers and those of your ex, and any mortgage companies and tell the court you have done this | 14 days before FDA | The applicant does this |
Questionnaire | Questions you write asking about anything unclear or missing from their form E (4 pages max) | 14 days before FDA | Each party does their own separate document |
Form FM5 | Form telling the court about your attitude to non-court dispute resolution | 7 days before FDA | Each party does their own separate document |
Form ES1 | Provides a summary of key information and the issues in the case | 11am on the day before FDA but realistically as early as you can | The parties must collaborate on one document |
Bundle | A paginated indexed file of all of the documents of you both have prepared. It can’t be more than 350 pages. Everyone uses this bundle. | When the court issues the form A it will give you the deadline, but do allow a few working days before the hearing | The applicant does the first draft index, seeks agreement to the contents, and then prepares the bundle. If the respondent has a lawyer but the applicant does not, the respondent does it |
Form ES2 | An excel spreadsheet of the assets (with separate columns so you don’t have to agree with what the other is saying) | 11am on the day before FDA but realistically as early as you can | The parties must collaborate on one document |
Position statement | A document explaining what you are asking the court to do, and why (max 6 pages) | 11am on the day before FDA but realistically as early as you can | Each party does their own separate document |
Now you go to the First appointment (hearing) | |||
Then, between FDA and FDR | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Form FM5 | Form telling the court about your attitude to non-court dispute resolution | If court tells you to do it | Each party does their own separate document |
Update your ES1 | Provides a summary of key information and the issues in the case | 11am on the day before FDA but realistically as early as you can | The parties must collaborate on one document |
Update your ES2 | An excel spreadsheet of the assets (with separate columns so you don’t have to agree with what the other is saying) | 11am on the day before FDA but realistically as early as you can | The parties must collaborate on one document |
Update your position statement | A document explaining what you are asking the court to do, and why (max 12 pages) | 11am on the day before FDR but realistically as early as you can | Each party does their own separate document |
Update the bundle | A paginated indexed file of all of the documents of you both It can’t be more than 350 pages. |
| The applicant does the first draft index, seeks agreement to the contents, and then prepares the bundle. If the respondent has a lawyer but the applicant does not, the respondent does it |
Now you go to the FDR hearing | |||
Then, between FDR and final hearing (If there’s a pretrial review abut a month before the final hearing, that’s to check progress) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Open proposals | A document saying what order you want the court to make ie what assets you each should have | 21 days or less after the FDR | Each party does their own separate document |
Section 25 statement | A witness statement about how the factors set out in s25 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 apply to you and your ex | If the court orders it | Each party does their own separate document |
Form H1 | Estimate of your legal costs and expenses. Yours may well be pretty much blank. | 14 days before final hearing | Each party does their own separate document |
Update the bundle | A paginated indexed file of all of the documents of you both It can’t be more than 350 pages. | 5 working days before hearing for filing and serving -you will need to agree the contents before this | The applicant does the first draft index, seeks agreement to the contents, and then prepares the bundle. If the respondent has a lawyer but the applicant does not, the respondent does it |
Update your position statement | A document explaining what you are asking the court to do, and why (max 15 pages) | 11am on the day before FDA but realistically as early as you can | Each party does their own separate document |
Update your ES1 | Provides a summary of key information and the issues in the case | 11am on the day before hearing but realistically as early as you can | The parties must collaborate on one document |
Update your ES2 | An excel spreadsheet of the assets (with separate columns so you don’t have to agree with what the other is saying) | 11am on the day before FDA but realistically as early as you can | The parties must collaborate on one document |
Chronology | A list of key dates in your relationship and the court process | 11am on the day before hearing but realistically as early as you can | The parties must collaborate on one document |
Statement of issues | A document saying what the court needs to decide about to resolve the case | 11am on the day before hearing but realistically as early as you can |
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