What to expect at your First Directions Appointment (FDA)

The First Directions Appointment (FDA) is the first hearing in financial remedy proceedings. It acts as a ‘house-keeping’ hearing, where the judge will establish the next steps needed for the case to progress, such as by making directions for the parties to gather additional information.

When is the first directions appointment?

As the first hearing of financial remedy proceedings, the FDA will typically be timetabled approximately 12-16 weeks after the application for financial remedy has been received by the court. 

For many people, attending the FDA will be their first appearance at the family court, and naturally, this can be a source of stress or anxiety. However, it is important to remember that it is your lawyer’s job to guide you through this process. At this stage, they will do most of the talking for you, and direct interaction between you and the judge will be limited.  

If you are preparing for an upcoming First Directions Appointment, contact Vardags today for a free initial consultation with one of our expert divorce solicitors. 

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what to expect and how to prepare for your FDA

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many hearings are now held remotely. In 2021, The Farquhar Committee produced a report titled: ‘The Financial Remedies Court – The Way Forward: A paper to consider the future use of remote hearings in the FRCs’. Here, the report suggested that the default position should be that FDAs are held remotely. You will be told by the court whether your hearing will be in-person or remote in advance.  

If your hearing is remote, there are a few steps you should take in preparation to ensure that it goes smoothly. First, find a quiet, private space where you’re unlikely to be distracted or interrupted. Second, if you have not joined a Zoom or Microsoft Teams call from your device before, doing a test run may be useful as you can check the strength of your internet connection, as well as whether your camera and microphone work properly. Perhaps ask your lawyer if they can set up an online call with you prior to doing so.  If you can attend the hearing remotely from your lawyer’s office, this will likely be your best option, as you will not have to worry about these two points.  

If the hearing is held in person, it is advisable to get to the family court early. Giving yourself plenty of time can help mitigate any stress or anxiety you may be feeling. Once you arrive at the family court, you will have to go through some security checks, including a bag search, so you will need to allow some time for this. 

You should aim to arrive at court an hour before your hearing, to provide sufficient time for you to discuss your case with your solicitor or barrister. You may also wish to discuss the issues of the case with the other party, or rather, your lawyer to discuss them with the other party’s lawyer. Ideally, such discussions should help narrow the issues contested and then they can be presented more efficiently before the judge. The next steps required to progress the case should also be discussed, such as obtaining a valuation of any relevant assets. In some cases, a settlement may also be agreed on at this point.  

what happens at the hearing?

When it is time for you to go before the judge, they will consider any progress which may have been made in these conversations. As the FDA is a ‘housekeeping’ hearing, the focus of the judge will be to determine whether the necessary information and documentation for the second hearing, the FDR, has been compiled.  

The court must then direct the case to be referred to an FDR, before which it must set out case-appropriate instructions (‘directions’) for the steps that ought to be taken before then. This includes (non-exhaustively) obtaining expert evidence, further valuation of assets, and any more or remaining chronologies. The judge must also approve each party’s questionnaire and may strike out questions which they deem unreasonable or irrelevant. They will provide a deadline for each party to respond to the other’s questionnaire. You are under the same obligation to provide full and frank disclosure when answering this, as you are when providing financial disclosure in your Form E.  

Pending the FDR, the court may also choose to make any interim orders where necessary (for example, maintenance pending suit).