Negligent legal advice cost me my home in divorce

macca1974

I have no idea about the divorce side of things, however your initial question about the "advice" given during the free 1/2 hour did make me curious. I've just looked at a couple of solicitors websites and both of them offered the free 1/2 hour and both had a disclaimer stating something along the lines of "XYZ solicitors accepts no liability for the information and/or advice provided in either their 30 minutes free introductory meeting". It might well be worth checking the website of the firm that you took the initial 1/2 hour meeting from to see if this disclaimer was in place as if it was you are probably on a hiding to nothing. Good luck with everything.

BeingMe

Thank you for your support Pollycat. It does mean a lot.

Macca, thank you for that advice. I've just looked and no such disclaimers are on their website. I wasn't given any literature to take and didn't sign anything either.

FBaby

I don’t know where you are getting info OP, but I am starting to wonder whether your feelings are once again taking over and you are becoming so desperate to be told what you want to hear that you are doing exactly the same thing than you did last time, that is to put all your faith in what one person tells you. You seem to be convinced that your new solicitors is absolutely right in their advice whilst the other was totally wrong.

I’ve only looked at the top two links that come up when googling, from seeming reliable sources, and both are quite clear that in the case of co-habitation, you have very little right to property you don’t own, children or not. Now your situation is that you were indeed married but… such a short time that this would unlikely be taken into account.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/guides/article-2650606/What-money-rights-unmarried-couples-break-up.html

http://www.terry.co.uk/cohabs.html

If you do more research, you will find that there are cases that have been won and lost in very similar circumstances, so unlike what you want to believe, it really is not black or white. A good legal person should tell you what the standard position is, which indeed is what you were told in the first place and what is advised in the link, but that individual circumstances could sway things.

You do come across as vulnerable and without knowing you, I do feel worried that this could lead you to a crook too happy to take your money telling you what you want to hear and then letting you down. What you know now is that there is nothing you can do about the person who gave you ½ hour advice, so leave this behind and concentrate your energy on whether there is point in fighting in now, both emotionally and financially. You say you have some legal background, so can you do some research on previous cases? Remember, the legal system is not there to make moral judgement on what is fair or not, just ensuring that the law has been applied.

Floxxie

BeingMe wrote: »

X-posted Pollycat. I'll admit this thread has been difficult because he conditioned me for so long with his abuse that I'm nervous about taking any action against him, and some of the comments here have reinforced this niggle that tells me I shouldn't rock the boat. But I know things would have been different if I'd been advised correctly first time. Some of the actions I've taken have definitely prejudiced my position and as I mentioned before, I'm in a vulnerable position currently. For these reasons, I will probably only be able to go after a lump sum. I'm debating how much to aim for to make it fair but which also represents my contribution to the marriage and secured my children's future.

I completely understand where you are coming from and I would therefore tell you to stop trying to do this yourself. Hand over your case to a competent solicitor and let them work out what is fair. It took almost five years for my divorce to get to a signed Consent Order stage and most of that time I was not working. I tried to do much of it myself, then used a firm promoted on Wikivorce (firm is definitely not recommended but Wikivorce is) before finally using a female solicitor who understood the dv aspects. It cost me more money than I had and was still stressful but much less so.
I also had child issues. It was rather a dramatic ending but we escaped from him.
Do not undervalue what you are entitled to from the marriage. What may seem the minimum amount you will accept is not necessarily what a judge will deem to be reasonable.

Floxxie

P.S. It would help you if you looked at things in a different way...so asset division has to be fair because that is what the law requires, child maintenance has to be paid at x rate because that is what the law requires..and so on. You are not rocking the boat but have a fear of it, because of his ongoing 'control'.

Valli

macca1974 wrote: »

I have no idea about the divorce side of things, however your initial question about the "advice" given during the free 1/2 hour did make me curious. I've just looked at a couple of solicitors websites and both of them offered the free 1/2 hour and both had a disclaimer stating something along the lines of "XYZ solicitors accepts no liability for the information and/or advice provided in either their 30 minutes free introductory meeting". It might well be worth checking the website of the firm that you took the initial 1/2 hour meeting from to see if this disclaimer was in place as if it was you are probably on a hiding to nothing. Good luck with everything.

Thanks for this - it backs up what I thought but didn't have time, at the time I posted earlier, to check.

BeingMe

FBaby, current case aside, and looking at it dispassionately, the first solicitor advised me incorrectly. She categorically told me that I had no option but to move out without registering my home rights. This is negligent advice regardless of what the actual outcome would have been. Also, 7 different solicitors have now told me that I was advised incorrectly (and that I had a good claim at the time and still do). There is actually legislation that has been linked to elsewhere that states cohabitation DOES count in a short marriage where there are children. This is the law so she was incorrect to advise me that the cohabitation wouldn't count. She actually said that with certainty.

Thank you Floxxie. I think I need to hear views like this in order to pursue what is fair. I don't think the current situation is fair and I've been advised by several solicitors that a court would agree it isn't fair.

Valli, that might be the case with other firms but I've checked and the first solicitor firm has no such disclaimers anywhere on their site.

WillowCat

BeingMe wrote: »

Just a quick update too, called a free legal advice line and read them the contract/agreement. They are saying it shouldn't prejudice my case so all good. I was just worried about wasting £500 just to find this out. Thank you all for your input, still happy to hear more opinions.

Every case is different, every contract is different. But, to add a note of caution, I had an agreement with my ex that we wrote. When, a while later he took me to court to overturn the agreement, I saw a solicitor who said it wasn't worth the paper it was written on and I should just roll over and give him half my house and pensions. His solicitor of course said it wasn't valid too. However, I did research on the law and found that agreements often be upheld, subject to certain safeguards. I have been through a stressful year and gone through the entire court process as a litigant in person including a final hearing where I was up against a barrister. The judge found in my favour and the agreement has been upheld in full. Now that's great news for me, but you will need to be able to prove that the agreement was defective, either because there wasn't material disclosure, or you were pressured into it, or you didn't understand what you were agreeing to, or, possibly the most important, that it does not meet the needs of your children.

If you pop over to Wikivorce we can help you more (I am Luna Shadow on there and have made a few posts about agreements). I now know the relevant case law inside out so may be able to help just as well to get an agreement overturned as I was able to get one upheld! :rotfl:

The other route you could explore is a ToLATA claim, though these can be expensive and costs may be awarded against the loser. This is due to the fact that your ex purchased undervalue from your family and I would expect that the equity injection this brought would be considered a contribution from yourself. I'm by no means an expert on this area but you should be aware that the legal title does not necessarily reflect the beneficial interest in property.

BeingMe

I do intend to do something about the first solicitor - I will be complaining about her negligent advice.

BeingMe

Thank you for taking the time to advise me WillowCat. I've obviously only briefly outlined the advice I was given in regards to the contract but I'm now more aware of the situation in regards the contract and actually, I had forgotten what I'd written and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. I don't actually agree not to pursue him, just that we should deal with our debts separately.