Divorce - Solicitor Fees

Bossyboots

It is the duty of care that can throw up the problems. In my experience amicable agreements regularly turn out to be unfair to one of the parties. The duty of care on a solicitor is to advise them of that. Once the parties have been advised that their proposed agreement is unfair, they then seem entirely unable to compromise on a settlement that will meet with the approval of the court. You have the situation then that, despite being advised to agree something, one of the parties insists they want this, that or the other and keeps matters going.

There are however also a number of solicitors out there who seem to thrive on confrontation and pick and pick at every little thing until all the assets of both parties are swallowed up. This happens partly because once they write to the other solicitors, under the professional code of conduct, a response has to be written and that response becomes a chargeable item.

If more couples used the mediation services available it would cost them less in time, money and stress.

Sarahsaver

I think my ex had to pay the costs :):)
serves him right!

btw I was advised against mediation for my own personal safety

Bossyboots

Sarahsaver wrote:

I think my ex had to pay the costs :):)
serves him right!

btw I was advised against mediation for my own personal safety

Its only a small minority who cannot undertake mediation. For the rest it is a case of one or both parties simply refusing to. Anyone seeking legal aid now for family law assistance has to attend mediation before they can apply for funding, except those in your position of course who would still be exempt.

Prudent

I had a separation that was far from amicable (there were very complex issues involved). It cost me about £6,000 and that was simply for a legal separation of assets etc. Although it did involve a court action and a fair bit of work on behalf of my solicitor to protect my safety. Have been told it will be an additional £1000 for the divorce.
My solictor always spoke with me about costs and made every effort to keep them down. I was working but on a temporary basis and struggling financially at the time.

gentlepurr

hi! i'm new to mse today! also made my lifechanging decsision to put divorce plans into action. i've phoned our local county courts who say that if both parties in agreement, i can file for divorce for a cost of £210, plus a later cost of £30 for the absolute once the nisi has come through. so far so good. BUT the hard bit is going to be agreement on finance, family home etc, plus child maintenance for our 12 yr old. I'm wondering whether i'm doing more harm than good trying to do some of the divorce on my own, and whether this could go against me when solicitors are instructed to sort out the fiancial and child aspect, as they will probably have to be involved, cant see my husband being very amicable about that side of things. Any ideas please, on both the logical point of view, and any cost effective methods we could try?
thanx!!

Queenie

gentlepurr wrote:

hi! i'm new to mse today! also made my lifechanging decsision to put divorce plans into action. i've phoned our local county courts who say that if both parties in agreement, i can file for divorce for a cost of £210, plus a later cost of £30 for the absolute once the nisi has come through. so far so good. BUT the hard bit is going to be agreement on finance, family home etc, plus child maintenance for our 12 yr old. I'm wondering whether i'm doing more harm than good trying to do some of the divorce on my own, and whether this could go against me when solicitors are instructed to sort out the fiancial and child aspect, as they will probably have to be involved, cant see my husband being very amicable about that side of things. Any ideas please, on both the logical point of view, and any cost effective methods we could try?
thanx!!

sorry to read that, gentlepurr ((hugs))

You might get more replies if you begin your own thread asking those specific questions. (??)

Bubble_Budgeter

Hello,

This is my first post so here goes!!

I actually work at a 'divorce court'... You can divorce at any County court that holds divorce jurisdiction (you can phone your local County Court & they will tell you if the have it or not) in England & Wales - Scotland have different rules...

The court can send you - for FREE - all the paperwork that you need to file for divorce, however there are court fees payable for submitting the papers (they are due to be increased soon) all the papers can also be downloaded from the court service website https://www.hmcourt-service.co.uk.

In a straight forward case you don't have to instruct solicitors (who will charge a fortune!) but you should remember that court staff are not legally trained and can not give legal advice (we will give procedural guidance - at least my court like to think we're quite helpful like that) but we are not allowed to tell you what to write on the forms for the Judge....

You should choose your solicitor wisely - they are best to specialise in Family Law but the Citizens Advice Bureau or a firm called Community Legal Service Direct can put you in touch with solicitors and advise whether you qualify for legal aid.

It is always worth phoning the court and asking them to explain about the process - in general terms we can give you info on the entire procedure in fairly plain english without the phone charge that solicitors make!!

Bubble_Budgeter

The financial matters of a divorce (although will be recorded on your divorce file) will run separatley to the actual divorce itself and you do not have to have solicitors for either or both although if the financial matters are likely to get complicated then it is usually advisable, although not essential that they act for you in the courts eyes - you can have solicitors advise you outside of court without them actually acting for you in court....

Currently it costs £210.00 to issue a financial application - ancillary relief -(this is going to increase considerably very soon) which leads to the collation of all financial information of both parties and then several court hearings...
It is possible that if you can agree on the financial aspects between yourselves you can go to a solicitor for them to draw up a 'consent order' which is then submitted to the Judge for their approval - the court cost of lodging the Consent order is only £30.00 which is obviously the cheaper option and far less intrusive into your financial affairs if both parties can discuss such matters...

Hope that helps a bit.... and good luck

Bossyboots

Thats quite a revealing post on the attitude of court staff towards the legal profession.

As you have stated court staff are not legally trained and the ramifications of divorce extend further than simply ending the marriage and dividing up the assets. There is a lot couples can do themselves and if they stopped squabbling over petty issues, they could save a fortune. However, it is folly to suggest that anyone should embark on divorce/ancillary relief without proper legal advice first. It is better to do it at the beginning, than have to unpick the damage at a later date.

44pinkpink

Bossyboots wrote:

While I agree the actual divorce can be done yourself, the financial settlement should not be. It is imperative a proper agreement is obtained to ensure that there is a proper clause preventing the parties claiming against each other in the future.

What makes the costs go up and up and up in financial settlement cases is the dogmatic views of either or both parties and the refusal to compromise. If both parties acted like decent human beings they could get it all done and dusted at minimal cost.

I agree - I'm going thro all this at the moment - and have spent a fortune already. The reason we are no longer doing it amicably is cos my nearly-ex husband's "amicable" is to treat me like i'm daft (which I'm learning not to be thanx to this site) and to try to get me to agree to things on his very unfair terms. I see it that the money I spend on the solicitor will be worth it in the end, cos the way he's messing about not disclosing bank account and business information should put me in a more favourable position. Hope so anyway!!