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Legal matters

X going back to court - scared

12 replies

Mymymble · 29/08/2012 21:09

X husband is going back to court just a year after the divorce & legal settlement to reduce maintenance. I have checked & I'm just not eligible for legal aid. He's got married to a well paid woman with her own house since divorce and was working freelance @ £800 a day but his hours have gone down seriously as the judge warned him they might when we went to court. He says the law says we have to go to mediation first in London - he's chosen the solicitor. Our 3 teenage kids live with me & I am unemployed. Do I have to accept and pay for his mediator? Can the court or anyone else help me? I am sick with worry. He will be 60 in 6 months and get a goodish pension then as well as his freelance work & wife's earnings. He got all our savings in divorce so can afford a good lawyer.

OP posts:

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Collaborate · 29/08/2012 23:38

Can you apply to capitalise the maintenance? You should take some advice from the solicitor you had a year ago.

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izzyizin · 30/08/2012 04:28

As you are unemployed, are you absolutely certain you're not eligible for legal aid?

What internet site or other method have you used to work out your entitlement to legal aid?

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Collaborate · 30/08/2012 07:50

Maintenance might make OP ineligible for LA. Or capital held (either equity in a property or savings/investments).

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olgaga · 30/08/2012 11:27

Try the helplines here:

www.rightsofwomen.org.uk/legal.php

//www.womensaid.org.uk/

//www.gingerbread.org.uk/

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Mymymble · 02/09/2012 18:53

Thanks for answering, both of you, Sorry, I don't know what capitalise the maintenance means... We haven't got capital except the mortgaged house we live in, (which he gets 4.5% of when the last kid leaves home) but with the £2100 maintenance he's paying now, plus child tax credit and £550 a month for renting out a room, it says I'm not eligible, which seems fair enough. It's heartbreaking, I can't get help to keep the maintenance but if he cuts it, I will get legal aid but it's too late. I could ask the bloke renting the room above the garage to move out but it took me 6 months to find him so seems stupid.

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olgaga · 02/09/2012 21:00

I think you have to go back to your solicitor. It will cost you, but you will probably benefit in the long run.

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RedHelenB · 03/09/2012 10:19

If he is going to retire soon then his maintenance payments will go down in all probability as his new partner won't be expected to bridge the gap. You have a sizeable income at the moment, how much is he proposing to pay you?

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Collaborate · 03/09/2012 12:21

Capitalisation of maintenance is where you lose your spouse maintenance but it is replaced by a capital award. Sounds like it's not available for you due to the lack of capital.

Your ex will have to show that there's been a material change of circumstances since the order was made. Was the order made by consent or forced on you both? If the latter, presumably the judge made the order bearing in mind the fact that you ex's income would reduce shortly. See if you can get hold of a transcript of the judgment (your solicitors might have taken a note, or you can spend quite a bit of money getting the tape recording transcribed).

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Mymymble · 07/09/2012 15:22

He'll want to get rid of all spousal maintenance and go down to 20% of his own earned income £3200 a month (we works freelance) for the kids so we're talking of 2/3rds of our income going. He should have capital - he got our old house (capital around £80k and £380k in the divorce - I got the house the kids & I live in while he got a 4.6%charge on it when I'm 63. In the cour hearing the judge actually said to him - are you sure you can afford this, I don't want to see you back here in a year (it is a year) so it's a good idea to get the transcript, Collaborate. Is it right that if he's entitled to take part of his pension at 60 it means his new partner's income isn't taken into account?

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STIDW · 07/09/2012 16:05

Whatever the source of his income the new partner's income is only relevant in that they should be contributing to their household's expenses, thus reducing your ex-husbands costs and increasing his disposable income and his ability to pay spouse maintenance.

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Collaborate · 07/09/2012 16:46

Agreed.

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Mymymble · 09/09/2012 13:01

He lives in her house (where she won't let my middle child visit and has the other two once or twice a year) which she has owned since 1994 so I guess that helps him. They are back fron holiday this weekend so I will know more. Does anyone know if I have to accept his choice and location of a mediator and a court?