Evidence, Practice and Procedure: Appeal against Refusal of a Consent Order

Can a consent order applicant (or indeed one or both parties) appeal against a district judge's refusal to seal a consent order. The short answer is yes: Rickards v Rickards [1990] 1 FLR 125 CA. By such appeal the parties might save the expense of answering lengthy questions from the court or of risking a full contested hearing against the background of the district judge's view of some perceived weakness in the order. (Grounds for such an appeal are addressed in a later note Evidence Practice and Procedure: Financial Agreements: A ‘Concluded Agreement' Test?: eg by reference to the autonomy principle in Radmacher (formerly Granatino) v Granatino (Rev 4) [2010] UKSC 42 [2010] 2 FLR 1900).

 In Rickards the issue of an appeal arose in ancillary relief proceedings where the husband had failed to file a notice of appeal in time and where the circuit judge refused his later application for leave to extend time. The judge gave...