DIY divorce

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Does anyone have experience of handling a divorce with no (or minimum) solicitor involvement? It's by no mean straight forward but I have been quoted 10k for solicitor fees which would take me a year to pay. I am wondering what a solicitor can do that I can't with a but of research? I have paid for 2 consultations with solicitors and have been advised of the way forward. Dies anyone know of any helpful links or specific forums?

it all depends how amicable you will be. If you can sort out the assets split yourselves it will save you thousands. I don't see why you have already been quoted £10k, thats the sort of money I've seen people paying when it's been a very messy one.
I have left a 30 year marriage, didn't use a solicitor other than to sign off the consent order. DH did, and from what he's said has spent a lot. But I imagine he will have been spending a lot of time telling her how to do her job better and mansplaining
I stuck to my guns and asked for 50/50 share of all our assets and didn't ask for ongoing maintanance, he's a high earner and I've been a trailing wife while he buit up his career so a good chance I'd have got it if we went to court.
You can do a DIY divorce online via the Gov.uk website, it costs just shy of £600. That covers the actual divorce part, but you also need to lodge a consent order to legally seperate the finances, it costs £53 to lodge it.
You really need to get a solicitor to draft the consent order, I paid £600 for a solicitor to go through the consent order my husbands solicitor drafted.
My kids are adults, so didn't have to do anything there.
I found www.terry.uk very useful, scroll down on the home page and you'll find a link to the forum right at the bottom left.
www.gov.uk/get-a-divorce

You'll get an awful lot of advice on here. Good luck

No specific links sorry, but would encourage you to do it yourself. It's crazy what divorcing couples pay solicitors and if they are amicable enough it's completely possible to do without solicitors.
And if you have DC, it makes the life after divorce much easier on everyone.

We are doing a bit of both - making decisions between us and then having a solicitor draw up the paperwork. Solicitor recommended this approach to keep costs down (both low earners) and it is reassuring to know they are there if I need them.

Hi there,

I've managed by boyfriend's divorce with minimal solictor involvement. Fortunately the Courts Service have had to go digital with Covid, and they seem to have gone with a system where it talks you through everything as you apply online. One of the most useful facts to know when considering options is that the divorce itself, the financial separation and child arrangements are 3 separate processes (with a little bit of tie in between the steps of divorce and finances).

Divorce is £550 for the court fee, and its VERY easy to do online. If you're on benefits or low income etc you can sometimes get this refunded or don't have to pay in the first place. Depending on what grounds you choose for divorce you may also be able to apply for a court order to make them pay your costs, but otherwise they won't have to pay anything.

The court fee for the finacial separation is £53 if you can agree it between yourselves. You'll need 2 things..
a D81 form (statement of information) on which both of you list your basic financial status quo, without needing to show any evidence
a draft consent order, ideally with a 'clean break' claus. This is only called 'draft' because it's not official until it's approved by the Judge.
This
The D81 is easy enough but I really would suggest getting the consent order drawn up by a solicitor. It's just not worth the risk of doing it yourself and fluffing it up. That would have been £600 in addition to the court fee, but Cruella the ex threw some spanners in the works so it cost another £600 for hither thither until we gave up and just submitted the damn thing. I'm confident we could have done that extra faffing ourselves but boyfriend is generally useless and didn't think to ask me. .

Child access application costs maybe £255 in court fees, but that was only necessary because she was ignoring all his messages and requests to see their child. If they could have agreed it themselves this part of the process wouldn't even be necessary.

Worth pointing out that his ex has been a NIGHTMARE through the whole thing, but we still managed to get the actual divorce done without solicitor involvement.

Wikivorce is also a great resource, as is the info sheets on gov.uk HMCTS.

I think it depends on what complications there are ?

Read farm girl…
To add to that

1. The Gov portal is simple. Really simple. The process of divorce itself is as easy as applying for a driving license. Depressing really.

You can go on line and ready through process and all forms whenever you want at www.gov.uk/divorce

1. You can get a financial consent drawn up if you and ex are amicable, honest, trust each other . You can use a solicitor as much or as little as you want in that process. I paid for them to take mine and ex’s draft consent (we’d done all the D81 and form E ourselves) and legalise it into correct language. I paid about £800 plus vat - it wasn’t that complicated though . Ex paid £200 for a solicitor at that point so we could show courts we’d both taken legal advice and minimise any issues with courts questions.

The best guide I found to doing the financial split yourselves was this guide. It’s great at pointing out where you should, you might or you must get solicitors . And it has links to a site which solicitors add names to for providing services based on that piecemeal approach. www.advicenow.org.uk/guides/how-apply-financial-order-without-help-lawyer

1. This guide by mediate is also helpful

www.mediateuk.co.uk/financial-mediation-process/

I petitioned for divorce at start of April 2021, decree final by end June. Very easy. We kept cost to minimum, and then split them evenly including the solicitor for each of us. In total it cost us around £1800 between us.
But you have to be prepared to compromise and just talk your way through the issue. Let go of past for now, focus on future. You can rage at past and go through “grieving process” once you’re done with legal/finance issue

Sorry this one too
www.mediateuk.co.uk/the-ultimate-guide-to-a-financial-consent-order/

Note that a consent order is one where you both agree and write out what you want to do, solicitor just writes up that in legal term and court approves during decree final piece
The financial order is where you need help form mediate or go all th3 way to court.
I found that a wee bit confusing at first