ex parte application

The term ex parte is used in the context of applications to courts, predominantly with obtaining interim relief including search orders and freezing orders, and obtaining writs for the enforcement of judgments, such as charging orders and third party debt orders. In ex parte applications, the respondent to the application is not given notice of the application or the hearing before the Court – not through a failure to appear having been given notice, but because the applicant did not serve the respondent to the application or otherwise inform the respondent that an application would be heard by the court.

Reason for Ex Parte Applications

Notice is usually not given where it would defeat the purpose of making the application in the first place. That is, the orders sought must be obtained without notice, because if notice were given in the usual way, the respondent would take some action to defeat the purpose of the order intended to be sought by the application. Parties to litigation are generally required however to give notice of applications, and ex parte applications are a rare exception to this rule. It is a fundamental precept of English law that a party be entitled to be heard before an order is made, and the exceptions are rare.

Usual Practice – Applications on Notice

The usual practice in English courts for applications on notice are that the application is filed in court and then served upon the respondent on clear three clear days' notice prior to a hearing date. On that date the Court is likely to make directions for the future conduct of the Application such as filing and service of evidence (evidence in response and evidence in reply) and fixing a date for the hearing when the evidence filed by the parties will be considered and submissions made to the court. The Court thereafter makes its order and the proceedings move on to the next step.

When a respondent is not represented at a hearing (usually because it has not been served with the application notice), the application is said to be an “ex parte application”. A party might be given informal notice of the application just prior to the hearing - this does not amount to notice in the formal sense, because three clear days notice has not been given by the application.

Use of the Term has been largely replaced by "without notice applications".