How to pay solicitors fees for divorce

indialola

My husband and I have decided to separate after 21 years of marriage - 2 daughters, 16 and 19. We are fairly well off, have no mortgage and my husband runs his own company. I stayed at home until the girls were 9 and 11 and work have worked 3 days in a school ever since. We have separate bank accounts and my husband "pays" me money monthly.

My husband does not want to use solicitors for the divorce but wants us to sell the house and share the monies. He has his fingers in lots of pies and has a fairly large of amount of money "hidden". I have seen a lawyer and am now ready to start divorce proceedings. However, the solicitor wants monies paid up front and will do so until the divorce is finalised. I have no savings and no access to monies of this kind. My husband will not agree to giving me any - so what do I do?

I assume that I will have to get a loan - I have no relatives to lend me any money - where is the best place to go for a loan of this kind - please give me some advice? Have lived with a lying, cheating man for so long and now that I am brave enough to want out of this loveless marriage, money is stopping me going?

Advice please?

RAS

Most lawyers want to be paid out of the proceeds of the divorce. Maybe see another lawyer to see if they will wait for their fees.

Caroline_a

I've never heard of this in a divorce case - find another lawyer!

indialola

I did wonder if this was common practice. She wants £800.00 now to pay for applications to court etc but this will get eaten up pretty quickly at £190.00 an hour! My husband is not going to settle quickly.

I wondered how other people have managed to pay for solicitor's fees in a divorce?

RAS

As a rule it comes out of the divorce settlement - one Op here has a second mortgage of £10K to pay her off but that was after the divorce was settled.

lilac_lady

Do not pay that solicitor any money. My ex did not settle quickly but I had a good solicitor who helped me through everything. Find another one. It's not necessary for you to spend any money at this stage.

ceri1969

Don't know if it helps, but your situation sounds simliar to mine. I got divorced last year after 22 years of marriage. We were also comfortable and had no mortgage and he did everything he could to avoid settling.

My Solicitor was brilliant, she took care of everything and most of her fee was paid out of the settlement. I did however have to pay valuer's fees and court fees etc up front. I also had to pay an interim bill after about 6 months work.

As other posters have said, please look for a different Solicitor.

Good Luck.

indialola

The message certainly seems to find anothe lawyer - but this one really seems to know what she is talking about.
Ceri1969 - how did you fund these fees and interim bills - did you take out a loan?

ceri1969

I didn't take a loan at the time. I had a small amount of savings, but also credit card debts when we separated. I had to start from scratch so a lot of stuff went on the cards, while I used my salary to pay for the Solicitors fees.

The Valuer's fee was about £360 split 50/50, the court fees I paid as and when they arose and I think the final court fees came out of the settlement amount. The interim bill was about £1,000 which just about cleaned me out.

I used this Solicitor on a friend's recommendation, that's always a good place to start.

indialola

Yep, this solicitor is recommended by a friend and takes pretty high profile cases. I just wish I had some cash - want this over and done with. It will be too complicated to go through without a solicitor ... I have shares in his company, I'm sure he's got houses elsewhere etc.

Just wondered if anyone had taken out a loan?

NAR

Sounds like a top solicitor to me, bit like the one I had. Sounds like you will need a good one, so be careful if you decide to jump ship.
My solicitor needing paying as I went along, so initially I used savings, then a loan. Definitely an expensive route, but if you have no alternative . . . . Have you nothing you could sell to raise a few grand (maybe car), that will last quite a while. Finding the hidden funds will not be easy if he does not declare them as marital assets; the houses will have his name on the deeds and will be easier to find.