Consent order - solicitor charges compared to using online legal provision

[YoshimiBTPR]

Divorce so far has cost £900 plus £500 court fees. Currently trying to agree financial provisions between ourselves. Hoping we can and then attend mediation to make sure we haven't missed anything.

My solicitor will charge £750 to draw up the consent order. I think any questions/advice/correspondence are charged on top of this.

There appears to be online offers from £250.

I am unsure what I get for the £750 compared to the £250. How much of a risk is there around a badly drawn up order?

I can't see much value from the £900 so far. I hope that isn't insulting. it perhaps isn't obvious.

[YoshimiBTPR]

Thank you babybarrister.

Tricky because the £750 won't include any actual financial advice. And I cannot afford to pay any more.

Whereas, if I was paying £250 for the drafting, i could actually afford to get (a little) financial advice from my solicitor first.

Are the potential problems around getting/not getting actual financial advice, or can there be problems from the drafting quality?

I hope this makes sense.

[Viking64]

I spoke to an online solicitor he was very good and explained the procedure in plain English. Cost about £250 and I will be using him

[Minime85]

Exh and I did on line one and worked fine as we agreed to fill all paperwork in and on the financial side of it, which included a house and pensions.

However DP went down same route and his exw refused to fill paperwork in as not come from a proper solicitor or court. So now we are having to take her to court to get a clean break so have wasted £250

[YoshimiBTPR]

Oh dear Minime. I bet you could do without going to court.

I'm torn. It seems a bit shortsighted to be cheap at this stage given the long term implications. Just haven't got the cash.

Ex has thrown up a lot of what ifs. Mainly around him losing job, taking a pay cut etc. Not sure how we write these into an order. But I can see us needing good legal advice.

[Twillow]

I spent 10k on financial settlement. Not particularly complicated. Hundreds of hours of work on stuff that was never referred to in court, nitpicking over bank statements etc: encouraged to do this by solicitor and wondering if it was for their financial benefit now... Judge took 10 minutes to say what we both needed to support our children, how one party was overhoused (more bedrooms than necessary), other party could possibly work more hours, tweaked 50:50 rule in my favour in both equity and pension. If ExH had been willing and we could have agreed it ourselves it would have been so much simpler, less painful and cheaper. They will not take what-ifs like your H is saying into account, only based on the here and now.