Divorce, Pension and legal aid

hannaford

Hi al,

My partner is getting divorced at the moment and his soon-to-be-ex wife is using a legal aid solicitor.

She appears to be doing everything she can to rack up our bills. The latest attack is that she is now asking for financial disclosure and mediation to resolve financial issues.

While negotiations regarding the children were going on, we pushed for a mediation meeting in EVERY letter that our solicitor sent to her. Her solicitor ignored the request each time and his ex privately told us that we could "stick our mediation"

Now that there is a sniff of her gaining something financial, she is all for the mediation and regularly messages with comments such as "hope your pensions are doing well" and "You're going to struggle when you retire".

As he took £30K + of debt in his name that they built up through the marriage (mostly but not all by her), he feels that a clean break is much fairer.

His total pension pot (apart from the state pension) was valued last month at £5500. So nothing to get excited about!!

My question is this......

Will the LSC and/or her solicitor think that such a small pot is worth the costs involved in getting half of it?

Secondly, if she does get awarded half of it, will this cause her to have to repay any of her legal aid funded costs?

I have searched the internet for answers to these questions and have only managed to screw my brain in to knots!

Please help!!! :mad:

Rachel

rpc

hannaford wrote: »

As he took £30K + of debt in his name that they built up through the marriage (mostly but not all by her), he feels that a clean break is much fairer.

If the finances haven't been sorted yet, that debt can probably be tossed into the pot.

Nothing useful to add I'm afraid - IMHO this is one of the problems with our legal aid system. It isn't fair that one person can drag things out and drive up costs just because they don't have to pay the solicitor.

NAR

rpc wrote: »

If the finances haven't been sorted yet, that debt can probably be tossed into the pot.

Only if it can be proved, to the satisfaction of the judge, that the debt was down to his wife, or for the benefit of the family.

Any financial settlement that she receives may be recovered by legal aid.

All financial information on both sides must be disclosed if requested. This covers salaries, pensions, savings, shares, bonds, ISAs, endowment policies etc etc. If an amicable financial agreement cannot be reached, through mediation or otherwise, then the judge will make an award as they see fit.

margaretclare

rpc wrote: »

If the finances haven't been sorted yet, that debt can probably be tossed into the pot.

Nothing useful to add I'm afraid - IMHO this is one of the problems with our legal aid system. It isn't fair that one person can drag things out and drive up costs just because they don't have to pay the solicitor.

If the judge thinks that one side is dragging things out with the idea of driving up costs in the hope that the other side will have to pay, he/she may rule that the debt is treated as a 'first charge' on any house property. This is what happened when my DH was divorced back in 1999. Spiteful vindictive madam got the house off him - she pleaded poverty, nowhere to live - and even wanted him to continue paying the mortgage. She and her solicitor cooked up numerous fancy tales trying to make out that he had a lot of resources - what our solicitor called the 'end of rainbow pot'! and wrote reams of letters when the whole thing could have been sorted in no time.

The judge made a 'first charge' against the property and as far as we know, that debt is still rolling-up at 12%.

Debt_Free_Chick

You have to go through mediation. The Courts are not best pleased at having to sort out finances, when the parties should be able to do that, using mediation.

bouicca21

Mediation is a good idea and far cheaper thangoing to court and fighting. Both sides will have disclose financial details - incomes, assets, debts, pensions. Other factors are also taken into account - ages, children, length of marriage. There will be an ongoing responsibility for child maintenance and possibly spousal maintenance too. The priority will be housing the children.