Legal Aid Fee's

barryk32

I split with my ex partner in Feburary and have been trying to buy her out since. This has recently been completed and I borrowed enough to pay her off and have enough to clear a bank loan that I got in my sole name for home improvements (you live and learn) as I wouldn't be able to afford both mortgage and loan payments.

However, when we split my ex refused me any access what-so-ever with my son and I had to see a solicitor and go through court in order to fight for every single minute I now have with him (which is still ongoing). I was entitled to legal aid for this issue and have been paying my contribution each month.

The issues with the house have now been resolved and she has moved out but upon completion I was expecting a cheque for just under £8,000, I have been issued with a cheque for just under £4,000 as my solicitors are holding back £4,000 to pay back my legal aid.

I have a few questions about this.

Is there anything I can do regarding the £4,000 that my solicitor is holding?

If I had only borrowed enough to buy her out and there wouldn't have been any 'spare money' would I have still had to pay the £4,000 back. The reason I ask that is my ex didn't need to borrow any further money as the bank loan was in my sole name and she didn't need to purchase any household items as she totally gutted the property before she left even taking light bulbs etc. So I would be really gutted if I am the only one that has had to pay back any fee's.

I really am worrying about how I am going to be able to pay both my loan and my mortgage.

Thanks in advance.

mountainofdebt

but when my mum had legal to get her divorce, I seem to remember that she paid it back on a monthly basis.

Fortunately she received an unexpected inheritance and was able to pay it off in a lup sum.

Bossyboots

Could you clarify either here or pm me your legal aid situation.

You say you were entitled to legal aid for the child issues. Did you receive any legal aid for the financial issues. It seems strange that you would apply for it for one matter and not another and if you were financially eligible for legal aid, your solicitor should not have charged you private rates for work covered by public funding.

There are a couple of angles here which could take some explanation so it would help to know your legal aid status on both matters.

On the assumption that the statutory charge is payable, then you need to ask your solicitors to ask the Legal Services Commission to defer payment and place it as a charge on your property. They may not agree to this as there is cash available and indeed, your solicitors may have already sent the money to them. If you explain the purpose of the money then you may be able to defer payment although at the moment the interest rate on the LSC charge is higher than the high street. Publicly funded parties are being encouraged to pay their fees now, rather than later but if you are going to be in severe financial difficulties because of it, they might agree. Your solicitor should have explained all this to you and that any money remaining would be used to pay off the LSC.

If you ex was in receipt of legal aid, she too will be repaying her solicitors fees back to the LSC because she has received a lump sum payment.

If you had only borrowed enough to pay her off, the LSC would place the charge on your house to be paid back later with interest.

barryk32

Property was a straight forward, I received a mortgage offer to cover paying her out and to cover my loan so I didn't need to apply for legal aid. The only complication was her refusal to find somewhere else to live (she was quite happy living mortgage free as I was still paying it).

The only legal aid was for the access to my child, with them being seperate issues could that have an effect on me getting it back?

My solicitor has 'held' the £4,000 as I am still having to take her to court for access so its still ongoing, hopefully this will be the last time as its just contact at christmas I am trying to get now (she says unless christmas falls on my weekend i'm not seeing him :mad: ). My solicitor has said the £4,000 is to cover the legal aid and anything left over will be given back to me.

What would placing a charge on my house and paying it back later mean?

Thanks for the reply.

Bossyboots

If your legal aid is, as you state, simply for the contact matters, then the statutory charge does not arise and they should not have kept back any of your money for this purpose. The charge arises when you recover or preserver property, money or assets. Children are not classed as property etc. for this purpose (or any other). Please check page 2 of the certificate of public funding at the top, where it says what work is covered by the certificate.

If your solicitor has the money, it seems that the transaction for the mortgage and buying your ex out of the house has gone through him/her. How have you funded your costs in relation to that?

The £8000 you received is a bit of a sticky issue. Technically you should declare this as a lump sum and have a recalculation done of your legal aid. Anything over £8000 bars you from legal aid so your certificate will be discharged. You have however only received £4000 of the money and paid your solicitor £4000 on account of costs. You should still declare the £4000 you have. The LSC do not consider it appropriate for the public to fund people's loans (which is in effect what would happen as you would have the benefit of public funding at the expense of the tax payer rather than paying it from your lump sum and repaying the loan yourself) so they may well argue that now you have this money it should be used for paying your own legal fees, rather than depending on the public purse. I think this may be why your solicitors have kept it back. I don't think they can take it against costs to date as you qualified for funding up to the point of receiving the money.

You need to check the wording of your public funding certificate and any amendments to make sure it only covered child issues.

You need to ask you solicitor on what basis they believe this lump sum should be used against your legal aid costs as you have not recovered or preserved anything of financial value on which the statutory charge operates.

Make sure your solicitor has placed the funds in an interest bearing account and make it clear you expect the interest to be paid to you.

If the LSC place a charge on the property, when you come to sell, this will have to be settled in the same way as your mortgage. The LSC will, on request, issue a notice of the sum required to satisfy the charge which will be your original fees plus 8% pa interest. You are free to request a settlement figure at any time and pay it off at which point the LSC will have the charge removed from the property.

Without seeing all the paperwork it is difficult to work out for sure if your solicitors have done the correct thing but on the face of it they haven't.

rchddap1

My OH's ex wife also refused to let him see his daughter on Christmas day. That's my day she said...as if he has nothing to do with it. Same problem on birthday too. However, she seems to be mellowing a bit as the past few years he was allowed round to give her an Xmas pressie, and last year he took her off for a hour (nicer than being stuck in the ex's house that is full to the rafters with people).

Will be 'interesting' this year as Xmas falls on his weekend. No-one has said anything about it yet, but suspect that things will run as normal...but hopefully he will be allowed to take her away from bedlum for a bit.