Timescale?

[waryandbored]

Hi
My divorce petition was received by the courts on 16th May and sent to him on 30th May. He’s told me he’s signed and sent back his part. There is no financial order and I am sure he will have sent it back when he said he did.

However, on the letter I received it says ‘If you do not receive a copy of the completed acknowledgment of service within 14 days from the date of posting you may....’

It’s been 4 weeks since the date of posting and I haven’t received anything - can anyone tell me if this is normal? It’s so hard to find anything out online about the expected timescale of this. The options given in the letter all involve applying to court and paying more, which I would really prefer to avoid!

Thanks in advance.

If you're using Bury it's normal. They are beyond shit.

www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/couples-face-up-to-year-long-wait-for-streamlined-divorces/5066687.article#commentsJump

Report on how shit it is.

Seems to benefit the lawyers to work at a snail’s pace too. E.g. you hear nothing, you chase them with an email, they charge you for reading it. The longer it drags in the more they can charge.

Well, That's nonsense.

Most lawyers do divorce on a fixed fee. So no matter how many times my clients chorus "how many more miles " from the back seat, even when I have told them the timescales and that I can do fuck all to speed it up, it doesn't cost them a penny.

We have just hiked our fixed fee, though. I'd sooner have the divorces done in a reasonable timeframe though. It's tedious inconsequential work that distracts from the real business of sorting out finance and kids.

The sooner we ditch the current system for a no fault administrative system, the better. Say 95% of family solicitors.

I do hope Mr Bert takes you to the cleaners one day. They talk about a fixed fee but more and more charges are slapped on top. Divorce is the biggest misfortune you cannot unsure against. How can close to £500 an hour he morally justified?

Well if you're silly enough to instruct a lawyer at £500 per hour you really are asking for it.

I charge £230 an hour although it should probably be more like £260 in my part of London. I am 20+ years qualified. And I don't go outside my fixed fee other than for pre-specified issues.

Not much chance of Mr Bert taking me "to the cleaners" as we're not married, and he is not a lawyer. Sorry to disappoint.

MrsBert, you always have a very high-handed manner, don’t you? Is that part of the legal training? How much business do you drum up via this board?

None at all. This site has rules about touting and I stick to them.

Anyway, I have more work than I can cope with, thank you. No need to make nice to arseholes on here.

Bitter? Or justified. You decide.

I don’t have a lawyer so it’s nothing to do with them!

Heh sorry OP!

If it's Bury it's normal.

If you're the South West centre, something's wrong. No experience of other centres.

Hope it comes through soon.

Thank you. I am SW centre... I’ll have to try and call tomorrow.