Combine DIY/solicitor to save money? Advise please!

[ComfyOldPants]

To cut a very long story short (and avoid a good rant), I’m looking into divorcing my H.

At the moment, we have a DD aged 4 who is due to start school in September, I have been working part time since finishing mat leave. I am a key worker so still have to go out and he is ‘working’ from home.

Due to my p/t hours, I don’t really have enough of an income to save for a solicitor very well. Therefore, I’ve been looking at going down the DIY divorce route to save money. I hope we would be sensible and mature enough to arrange childcare and money for her between us, and I’m not going to ask him for any spousal maintenance.

In the future though, I do expect to have a decent sum of money through inheritance, and want to get a consent order drawn up to protect that. I know that a solicitor will have to do this.

My Q is, is it possible to combine the DIY route with the solicitor’s consent order, or would it all need to be handled by the solicitor? Any idea of how much I can expect to pay for a very simple consent order?

Sorry for all the waffling, it’s my first post in ages and my head is all over the place!

[WhiteWriting]

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very helpful on DIY X

[KatyPerrysMustang]

Yes it is possible, I did mine all myself (divorce online via gov website £550 at the time) and got solicitor to do consent order which was a fixed fee of £600 + Vat

[ComfyOldPants]

Thanks KatyPerry. The thought of shelling out (and saving up) so much money is just ugh, but if I can get the right advice online/from friends for everything that should help cut costs but not leave me in a bad position.

Next I’ll have to save save save and hopefully find a solicitor locally who won’t cost the earth!

[sobersides]

If it's any help I used DivorceOnline. They have a range of services which include consent orders. They have an online chat facility that I used frequently batting questions at them before I made my mind up which services I wanted. I also got a fee remission on the £550 court fee and only had to pay £35. It might be worth a look if you're looking a straightforward uncontested divorce.

[LadyBoe]

You can do this yourself and it can be empowering. I completed and filed my own petition and then arranged mediation. I only really needed assistance from a solicitor when it came to the consent order. I drafted my own petition and took this to a solicitor for my first appointmen which was free of charge for the first 30 minutes. I was actually with them for just undrr an hour and it was completely free. I did instruct them at this stage too and gave them a very small amount on account. I was then able to pay them by monthly instalments until I really needed them which from recollection was about 18 months after I first filed. Hope this is of some help to you.