Negligent legal advice cost me my home in divorce

BeingMe

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure this is in the right place but as its divorce related, thought I would put it here. I've only ever used the boards for debt advice in the past.

To cut a very long story short, I was with my XH for 12 years before we married. Three months after the wedding, his ow contacted me and I decided to leave. I sought legal advice immediately (free half hour consultation) and was told that I wasn't entitled to anything as it was a short marriage and my best bet would be to leave the marital home and the most I could hope for was to separate taking only our individual debts (he was in more debt than me).

This was almost 3 years ago. I acted on this advice, moved into private rental and did a DIY divorce. I even signed a contract saying I wouldn't pursue him for any of his property if he took on the joint tax credit claim debt as I believed this was more than I would get through the courts due to the legal advice I'd received.

I recently had to consult a new solicitor because my XH is borderline neglectful with our DC. At this appointment I discovered that the advice I'd been given was incorrect and that I should have registered my interest against the marital property. They are saying I could still pursue a claim but it all hinges on whether the contract I signed will hold any weight.

Is there anything I can do about this now? I basically walked away with nothing despite supporting my XH through joblessness and retraining, gave up my career to raise the DC all the while he was being abusive towards me emotionally mainly but also financially and physically on occasion.

I'm desperate for advice as I've battled with what I always felt was morally unfair but now know to be legally unfair (as far as a court would decide). He is sitting pretty in a large 5 bed and pulls in more income by having lodgers, while I'm cramped into a tiny private rental miles from their school (I do all school runs and majority of child care) and have to rely on housing benefit even though I now work. There is around £160k of equity and I've never pursued him for a penny even though he also owns other property too. Thank you in advance.

Nicki

Was the advice followed up in writing?

As you went down the half an hour free route, the question will be was there enough to time to consider the matter fully, did you bring all the documentation with you at the time, did you understand the advice you were given correctly - ie did they say that "sometimes with short marriages, the court will put the parties back into the position they were in before the marriage took place" (true) but you didn't understand that sometimes doesn't mean all the time and either didn't give them the necessary info for them to be able to advise you that didn't apply in your case, or were in a state and only heard the worst case scenario and didn't hear this might not apply to you?

The reason for asking these questions is that the burden of proof to prove negligence will be on you. This means you need to prove that the solicitor you saw was negligent, they don't have to prove that they weren't. Solicitors do need to keep client records for 6 years but I'm not sure that in these circumstances you actually were a client and so there may not actually be any record of what you told them or what they advised. But you do have 6 years from the date of the negligence to sue, so the first step is probably to find out if there is a written note of the meeting. Once you have that, you can see what you can prove and if things are cut and dried, hopefully claim quickly from the solicitors professional indemnity insurance.

BeingMe

Thanks for your reply Nicky.

I definitely did not misunderstand the solicitor. I remember her exact wording. She told me that I would have to move out and (her exact words) the best you can hope for is that you leave with only your debts. The new solicitor said that she should have advised that a charge be made against the property. If have never left my home if if known I could have stayed. I didn't take all my documents but I did take photo ID and something with my address. At this point we'd only been married three months but I told her all the circumstances. Most of her advice was based on the fact that we hadn't been married a year so couldn't divorce until our 1 year anniversary but I already knew this. I was going to find out about the legal situation with the house.

I'm also worried that there will be no record but I will call tomorrow to find out what information they hold about me as a starting point.

BeingMe

I also took his pay slips to that meeting and my marriage certificate. Just remembered that.

bouicca21

Did you tell the solicitor that you had cohabited for 12 years? Because that time is added to the actual marriage, which makes yours long, not short.The solicitor could not possibly have known unless you told him/her.

BeingMe

Yes, I told her everything. She actually told me that cohabitation is not counted, just the marriage and because it was a short marriage, I wouldn't be entitled to anything. She was very young, probably a NQ but I had no reason to doubt her so I followed her advice.

FBaby

In both circumstances, you were only provided advice of what was likely to happen. You can't say you were given wrong legal advice when you can't prove one way or the other what the outcome would have been had you been given different advice.

Neither solicitor can't be certain of what the outcome would be, otherwise, solicitors would never lose cases!

From the information you provided, it's not even possible to have a stab at bets. You would need to provide much more detail, including how long he owned the house before meeting you, why you were not added on the deeds, what you contributed towards the house/family bills etc, etc... before anyone could even start to make guesses.

I think you need to be very wary of what professional advice means. Lawyers are no different to other, they hold a business and need your money. They are not gospel readers.

FBaby

Did you tell the solicitor that you had cohabited for 12 years? Because that time is added to the actual marriage, which makes yours long, not short.

Not that straight forward. Cohabitating is considered, but as other factors and is not on its own a mean to being entitled to half a property you don't own.

BeingMe

I understand all that FBaby but she definitely gave me incorrect advice that the cohabitation period didn't count and as a minimum she should have told me I could enter a charge against the property before I left. She actually told me to leave the house and move into rented - presented it as if there were no other options. I was also a little surprised that she spoke with such certainty but we had only been married 3 months so I didn't question her advice and actually acted on it.

The matter is complicated because the house was actually my childhood home sold to us (him) at an undervalue. He was financially abusive and said he couldn't get the top up mortgage with me on the deeds and made me sign something from the bank to say I wouldn't pursue a claim. It was a very small mortgage though, there is a lot of equity in the property.

Nicki

So in half an hour you wanted a newly qualified to give you advice on domestic abuse, a complicated financial set up with respect to your house, the implications of co-habitation on financial settlement and who knows what else. I think your expectations were a bit high here! This was always going to be a complicated divorce which would have been better handled by solicitors given how much you had to lose financially rather than being suitable to DIY.

I've never worked anywhere which offered a free half hour and don't do matrimonial law, but I've never had a complicated legal case land on my desk which could be unraveled and advised on in half an hour. I've always assumed these "free half an hour" sessions are actually geared up more for the solicitor to tell you when you need them to be acting for you (ie as a marketing exercise) rather than to actually give people all the advice they will need to resolve an issue for free. Because why would a solicitor act for everybody in the world free of charge (rather than carefully selected pro bono cases) when they have student loans, staff, premises costs and insurance costs to pay before they can even start to earn a salary for themselves.

I wish you well with finding a smoking gun in their files which you can use to turn back time, but I'm afraid I think you were naive to rely on a single half hour of advice from someone who looked so young with so much financially at stake.

BeingMe

I assumed the half hour free consultations were to work out if the solicitor and firm were right for the client and vice versa. I didn't actually ask for a NQ, it was just the person they gave me. I wasn't expecting it all to be dealt with in that half hour, but I did expect outline advice about what my options were. She did give me that, but it turns out the advice was incorrect. It wasn't my only option to move out, I could have pursued him for a share in the marital assets. As far as I was concerned, she was the expert, I had no reason to doubt her advice.

On the other hand, I had a free half hour consultation with another solicitor recently and she gave me nearly exactly the opposite advice with options for pursuing my share of the marital assets. The problem I have now is that I've potentially jeopardised my case by following the first solicitors bad advice.