How Do I Stop a Family Law Action in the Supreme Court?
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Only the claimant to a Supreme Court proceeding can stop the court proceeding without the proceeding going to trial or being settled. No one can stop a court proceeding for the claimant or force the claimant to stop a proceeding.
While it often happens that a proceeding is abandoned, typically when no one does anything in the action for a long time, that doesn't stop the court proceeding altogether or cancel any orders that have already been made. To bring everything to a halt, the claimant must file a Notice of Discontinuance in Form F39, and deliver a copy of the filed notice to everyone else named in the proceeding. If the claimant does this too late, after a court proceeding has already been set for trial, the claimant can only stop everything with the consent of the other parties or a court order.
While there is no fee charged to file a Notice of Discontinuance, Rule 11-4(4) says that the respondent may be entitled to claim his or her court costs of the proceeding up to the date it is discontinued.
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