Claim legal cost from my ex.

[Debsiee]

Hello,
I managed to get divorce from my ex (initially he was defending but then gave up). After getting Decree Absolut, I managed to get consent order approved by the court for financial settlement as well.

Recently I noticed that my approved divorce petition has that he should pay to cover for my legal expenses incurred for the divorce case.
Can I claim it now, given that the financial settlement is done?

Hi @Debsiee,

We realise this post is a few days old by now, but we thought we'd give it a wee bump for you in case anyone's around with some advice.

Sending good wishes

Could you ring a solicitor and ask their opinion?

Might help?

What do you mean ‘approved divorce petition’ to cover legal costs? Can you apply to have the other party pay costs?

@itcamefrombeckyvardyself - I don't want to ask my solicitor who's handling the custody case.. she might get tempted to extract more money out of me for this case, if that extra money comes in..

@user765 - yes, you can apply for the other party to pay your legal expenses.. as far as I remember, it was a checkbox somewhere in the application..

Sorry what I meant was you could ask another solicitor. Loads do a free session to talk about the issue and see if they can help you.

I spoke to two and ending up not needing either of them because of the advice they gave me at the free consultation.

I'm in the north west if you want me to let you know which one I went to.

My friend is in the same position.

He has to pay the divorce costs. She has to pay him a settlement figure but doesn't want to pay it till she gets the divorce cost from him.

She's no idea either how to make him pay it.

I was not married but had to apply for a child arrangements order because my ex had drug and alcohol misuse plus mental health issues (PTSD with violent behaviour) and was abusive to me. He lied, fought, refused to dondrug tests to delay things and I had to foot the bill for all the paperwork. His drug tests cost over £500 alone. He deliberately escalated my costs (admitted this but will lie about it now) by sending multiple emails to my solicitor, misrepresented himself through his friend’s solicitor practice ( I complained to the SRA but they were useless). I owe my solicitor £4000 and am paying 8% interest on this now. I want him to be ordered to pay some of this. It’s totally unfair. Plus he owes £1400 in maintence for the children. He should pay £100 a month but is basically nothing as it is.

So I need to know how to get/ help with these costs! But going to another solicitor isn’t really an option, since I owe so much already!

@'user765 You should start a new thread.

Generally with Child Arrangements it is up to each parent to pay their own legal costs this is why more and more parents are unrepresented in Court.