Sorry for the long post. Please advise. Thank you.
My ex-wife and I were divorced several months ago in the UK (decree absolute). I left the UK and am now living in Asia with our only son while she lives alone in the family home in England. There is not yet any agreement on how the family asset should be split or childcare arrangement. We have been to the FDA (i.e., first hearing) late last year. My ex-wife proposed a private FDR after the FDA. I agreed as I was under the impression that a private FDR can lead to quicker settlement as the court-based FDR may have a long waiting time. However, it is actually taking more time as my ex-wife always wants to reschedule the private FDR. So far she has already rescheduled it twice and we are not even close to a private FDR. The judge at the central family court also made no decision on the future direction for the last 4 months. I think the court is short of staff due to the Covid-19. The long waiting time has put me into significant financial difficulty. I am wondering what my options will be.
1. My ex-wife has not paid a single penny towards the child maintenance for half a year. I wrote several emails to her and her solicitor, but they chose to be silent on the topic. My understanding is that the court has no jurisdiction to make an order for child maintenance unless the parties have reached an agreement. But clearly my ex-wife does not want to engage in discussion on child maintenance, hence no agreement can ever be reached. What will be my options? Shall I get in touch with the Child Maintenance Service? Will they be able to do something about it?
2. Funding my son exclusively while settling in a new country has put me into significant financial difficulty. My question is how I can protect my son’s best interest and my best interest. While all my income has been exhausted (rents, my son’s education, etc all cost money), she has all her income at her disposal for the solicitor (She is working full-time and has a very similar income as me). She even refused to contribute to the mortgage of the family home though she is living inside it alone. I am worried I may be disadvantaged in the financial settlement as I am not getting enough help from solicitor due to the financial constraint. What will be my options?
3. The third issue is regarding how to protect my privacy and to prevent my ex-wife and her solicitor from breaching my personal data. My ex-wife’s solicitor has written to me, claiming my ex-wife has obtained confidential documents of mine from the common area of the family home and those documents are now safely stored in her solicitor’s office. They did not tell me what those documents are. They are now applying for court’s order on how to deal with those documents under Imerman Act. I have replied to my ex-wife’s solicitor, asking them to send those documents unopened to me, which they refused. Her solicitor said that an independent solicitor will decide whether those documents need to be disclosed. But I did not leave any documents in the so-called common area of the family home. All my documents/personal belongs are stored in my personal space in the family home. My understanding is that my ex-wife has no right to dig into my personal documents and send them to her solicitors, and her solicitor should also not deal with those documents after knowing those documents are confidential to me. How should I handle the matter?
It also comes to my attention that my ex-wife is contacting third-parties to obtain my personal information by claiming she was me. She knows me very well and is capable of bypassing the security check set by the third parties, such as confirming my date of birth, registered address or telephone number. How can I prevent her and her solicitor from improper use of my personal information?
Thank you.