REMO from REP of IRE

A question about : REMO from REP of IRE

I need advise please...
Firstof all im in the UK

Heres the sad story. Got married 94 we had son here in uk 95, 6 mths later ex went back to REP OF IRE as i was away on 6mth tour with army.
I began paying regular maintenance. She then took me to mags crt in ROI and they demanded Ј240 pm, on a squaddies wage.my SOL didnt appeal this as i could not be present in court due to being overseas. It has never had a reassesment.( she wanted no personnal contact with me, she got legal aid, i had to pay for SOLS). Our sols had two years of nasty wrangling denying me any visitation etc. She kept moving sols.( ive got all the letters). I never saw my son. I then stopped paying in 97 as my time was up in the army, took a few months to get new work.
So i gave up all the pain and heartache then as i wasnt going to go through all that again. Anyways i had no court orders sent through,,, nothing at all. In 2002 i contacted her SOLS as i was remarring and needed a divorce. All she agreed and LONDON COURTS signed the decree as well as the final paperwork regarding children.
I still hear'd nothing, no summonses etc. ive all ways worked and been fully traceable if realy needed. She even knows my mothers address in ROI.
My son is now 19 and turns 20 in mar. I have just received a REMO from ROI ( still havent received court papers).

1. Am i liable for back payments
2. I stopped paying in 97 via court judgement not csa
3.there is a csa record but it is closed down in 2001 and shown as closed and no arrears.
4. The county court here in the UK allowed the divorce and signed the sec 41 of the matromonial causes act
5. Am i time barred????

Any advise would be greatly appreaciated .....DOM

Best answers:

• Going through a similar thing myself. My ex got a court order for maintenance in the roi despite me not even being present!
  It was transmitted via remo to my local court and they registered the order. I have been paying it through the court here for 7 months.
  I have had little choice because I cannot change the order here, if I wanted to change it I would have to travel to Dublin to get it changed. I have been to court over there once, don't waste your time as it was awful.
  My advice is get copies of any court orders that your local court will register. Why are remo contacting you? They should not be doing that. The only people who contact you should be your local court.
  Ask remo to send the paperwork to the court. You do need to see what is written in the orders as the court here will write to you telling you what is owed or not.
• Cheers, forgot to mention remo have contacted the courts and i just got a letter. Im going to completly appeal in court here. My assumed defences should be its a case dating nearly 20 yo and there seems to be non action by ex over this time. Even though there was contact in 2002 re a divorce. The courts over here signed off the divorce papers and the legal bit regarding children etc.
  Therefore i would also state she never replied to my letters in 1997 regarding a variation or no payment for a while due to leaving army. But she kept moving SOLS. So why have no action for 17 years. Therefore i had an honestly held belief i had no arrears building up.
  But i was informed she could make a new claim/assesment at any time.
  Can the courts make an assessment for amounts owed from a severly one sided assesment in 1997. Since then ive been married, two kids, etc....
  Any thoughts would be appreaciated. Dom
• Dom, when I got my letter from the court it set out the amount I had to pay plus arrears owing. Does your letter tell you that?
  In my case I was allowed to appeal the order but could only do that in Dublin not my local court. This is because of eu law which means that any eu maintenance order can be directly enforced without the need for a further hearing.
  I obviously don't know the details but if your ex is trying to enforce an order from Ireland that was before another set of court orders in the uk then it maybe best to apply to the court in Ireland to have the order struck out.
  I have found that despite my local court not really being able to do anything they are actually quite friendly and helpful when I speak to them.