Is this a reasonable cost for divorce?

[Startingout2015]

STBXH has asked me to contribute to cost of divorce and said that after an initial meeting with a solicitor last night he was quoted roughly £3.5k in fees for the divorce process.
This breaks down as: £2500 in hours (about 10 hours) + VAT and £500 in court costs.

This seems exessive no?

There is no children or finances to seperate

[Gobzilla]

I got a quote for £4k for a straight forward divorce. £3.5k seems reasonable.

[Sleepingonthebus]

Mine is costing me £600 plus vat and outlays so just over £1000. We have kids but there is nothing to sort out as court orders are already in place. No financial stuff to sort out either. Yours seems very high to me.

[katieferg81]

This seems expensive to me but then it's probably because it involves solicitors. When I divorced a few years ago no children and no financials to sort I got the paperwork from the court and completed it myself, all in all cost me about £400.

[ohdearymeee]

Mines about £1000 straightforward divorce.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Messy and complicated, I'm in for £9K and the jobs not done yet.

[AnneLovesGilbert]

We had no DC and came to an agreement about the house, there wasn't anything else. I filed for divorce and didn't use a lawyer so only paid the fees to file. All done for £420 or whatever it was. Do you really need a lawyer?

[ParsnipSoup]

If you have no children or finances together just do it yourselves. Very simple. All the forms are online. The fee is £420.

[shoeaddict83]

why do you need a lawyer if you have no joint assets, finances or kids? Just download the forms, pay £410 and do it all yourself its simple! Even have help forms online with the petition showing you exactly what you have to fill in and how. Why on earth are you paying a solicitor 10 hours for filling in what amounts to 3 forms/ (initial petition, nisi app and absolute app)

My partner did his himself and they had kids but agreed those finances separately for them, no lawyers involved cost £410 and was done in 4months using local divorce unit who also gave free advice to him when he needed help with some aspects of the forms.

[redhat]

If you're using a lawyer that's really not expensive. Its (very roughly) less than 2 days work in total.

Whether you need a lawyer is a different matter.

[Minime85]

Mine was £410 to file the papers myself and then £150 for a consent order which we again organised ourselves through an on line company which can included sorting out child maintenance payments and the house. All used a solicitor for was my initial enquiry which cost £150. She told me herself I was perfectly capable of filing the papers myself. If you can agree to things do it yourself

[Heartbroken4]

At a very early stage, but my lawyer has estimated the cost of the divorce, fees and the financial settlement at just over £3, if he doesn't contest it (as he said he wouldn't) and plays ball with the paperwork.

[Heartbroken4]

We have children and small assets.

[noisytoys]

I did DIY for £400 but now we are sorting the finances out after because we didn't do it during the divorce. The conveyancing is costing about £1000 so either way the solicitor needs paying.

[83mummypig]

Mine came in about 1500 (sols and court costs). My solicitor felt sorry for me
I think and gave me a fixed fee (which they don't do!) for filling the petition, financial order and absolute. At the time I was also sorting a house sale and a purchase, so not worry about the added stress helped. Because it was done cheaper, it took longer as it wasn't classed as a priority. It took about 10 months and was straightforward (no disagreements with ex etc)

[Chasingsquirrels]

I did the paperwork for the divorce myself, cost = court fees.
Child arrangements we sorted between us and dont have any legal agreement.
Finances, we agreed between us how we were splitting everything, I dealt with the transfer of the house with the land registery (not mortgaged, therefore no lender issues) and I got a solicitor to prepare a consent agreement which cost £200+VAT which I then filed with court.

Regardless of whether you have any assets you should get a consent agreement closing all claims between the two of you.