Solicitor suggest closing my mums divorce case - what does this mean?

funkyd_2

My parents are divorcing, my father filed.

After a few years of back and forth there is no progress regarding the financial settlement. My father wants half the house and my mother wants to keep it and a bit of his pension.

Mum's solicitor sent a counter offer back to his solicitor back in Feb but since then they've had no reply. The latest is that Mum's solicitor is suggesting to close the case.

What does this mean in practice? Is it their way of saying they don't want to deal with the case anymore?

Is it perhaps a tactic i.e. we've heard nothing so we will close the case on the basis that he can't be pursuing it now? Does that mean my Mum can now file and she will have some advantage because he didn't reply?

Could my mum now go to a court and say that as he isn't replying to grant her what she wants? If he later goes to a court how might they view the fact that he didn't reply to a counter-offer or does it not mean anything at all?

Usually it is the person being divorced that doesn't reply and is a really bad thing to do as it means a court can force the divorce but this is the opposite way round!

System

funkyd wrote: »

My father wants half the house and my mother wants to keep it and a bit of his pension.

.......

Could my mum now go to a court and say that as he isn't replying to grant her what she wants? If he later goes to a court how might they view the fact that he didn't reply to a counter-offer or does it not mean anything at all?

Your mum will look a bit silly if she does. The situation at the moment is Dad wants this, Mum wants that and neither seem to be prepared to compromise and come to an agreement.

There is no reason why he should agree to your Mum's wants and vice versa. It looks as though your Mum's demands are not even a starting point for compromise as far as your Dad is concerned, hence the lack of reply.


You, as piggy in the middle should justr beat their heads together to knock some sense into them. As things are going the only winners are going to be the solicitors.

funkyd_2

So him not replying to the offer is really him saying "I don't accept".

The solicitor is saying "nothing further to do here, you can't agree so case closed" (for now). If you like, doing mum a favour rather than keep battling on and running up more bills?

LannieDuck

Seems odd to me. It must be very common for the two sides to not be able to come to an agreement during a divorce. Surely there are established ways of dealing with it?

Annisele

I think the general answer to "I don't understand my solicitor" is "go back to him/her and ask what they meant".

Did your Mum tell the solicitor she had £x to spend on legal fees, and that once the £x was used up she didn't want them to do any more work?

Ultimately, if your parents can't agree then a court can order a financial settlement. But that won't happen if nobody goes to court.

barba

As a son / daughter I would look to find a mediator who can help to close it off.

peachyprice

Are there any young children involved that would necessitate her keeping the house? Leverage to keep the house, even through courts, diminished considerably when there are no children under 18.

If there are no children, then I think her solicitor is saying, 'You're adults, you can't reach an agreement, come back when you can', and doing your mum a favour by saving her from spending a fortune in court for something she's not likely to get.

Pollycat

barba wrote: »

As a son / daughter I would look to find a mediator who can help to close it off.

Good suggestion.
Didn't the solicitor(s) suggest mediation?

Guest101

Surely its only fair to split it all down the middle? why dont you convey that to both of them, hopefully job done then.

Ballabriggs

My only advice to you is to try to stay out of your parents divorce, in the end its between them.

I got involved in my parents divorce when I was young (sided with my mother of course as that's who I lived with and heard the details from her - my dad would never talk about it) and to this day I really regret it. Only now do I know that my mother wasn't exactly accurate in what she told me, very one sided and actually some of her demands were quite unreasonable. I'm not saying this about your mum's situation but just remember there are two sides to every story, there may be a lot you don't know about even if you live in the same house. They are both adults let them sort it. Concentrate on having a good relationship with both of them because after all of this is finished they will still be your parents.

Good luck :-)