I think the wikivorce financial consultation service may be crap

[Penury]

So after posting here a while back about my DH aiming for 60/40 in his favour I decided to get some advice. What with kids and stuff it seemed easier to do an online consultation so I used wikivorce. £200 for a consultation with a solicitor. I know legal stuff can be expensive so didn't flinch too much at the price. I filled out a detailed financial report about both our assets then had a long ish phone chat with the solicitor once she'd reviewed it. The phone chat seemed fine, she bandied some figures about, was supportive, explained a few bits...but inevitably there was a limit to how much I could note down or retain so i waited for the written summary to come through. And it's rubbish!! Its all couched in 'you might think about' and 'you might want to suggest' language. its annoying because the consulation is advertised as "This service provides a full consultation with an experienced family solicitor. You will receive legal advice and a written report outlining your legal position and what a fair settlement would be based on your individual circumstances. " Anyone else been disappointed by wikivorce? I complained and was given short shrift

I'm trying this service, just working my way through it if my H will ever cooperate and tell me what his pension is worth. I really hope it will give me a good base to work from. I so need a new life. I'm feeling pretty broken but talking to Ian has helped so I am sorry to hear your experience. I just hope this isn't another example in my life of being duped by someone.

I used this service a few weeks ago and they suggested a 60/40 split in favour of stbx wife. We filled in the questionnaire together and both trust each others' figures . We have a reasonable amount of equity and they considered earnings and potential mortgage abilities with estimated future property prices, and suggested I offer a larger share of my company to achieve a clean break. The figures are roughly where I was expecting, but useful to have it in a report format I could share, this will likely form the start of or negotiating point.

Like you I was speed typing as she was talking, but all points were covered in the written report. I spoke to a lady (Michelle).

I was really just looking for a starting point. I'm sure I could have given the same figures to any other solicitor and paid probably double, but I'm not sure how the outcome could have varied

That's interesting Blaze...no suggestion of percentage splits at all from my consultation, which really I kind of needed given ex thinks it should be 60/40 in his favour. Would have been useful to know if this is fair - I suspect it isn't!

As I found when I openly shared this with my stbxw, "fair" is a vague term and she immediately dismissed it is as not fair enough. She was hoping for 80pc of the house plus spousal maintenance. So whilst there might be a few percentage points leeway, it's not as much as she was hoping for plus the other things. So..even though I have a report with figures, I'm not sure it really helps me anyway..