Online company recommendations/to avoid for financial settlement.

Lookabitlikemymum · 2022-04-04T21:48:45+00:00

Just that really. Doing all the divorce myself. Just waiting for Nisi now. We have agreed settlement in principle, but want it drawn up by a solicitor. Needs to be as cheap as practical, but legally binding. Any recommendations of online companies or ones to avoid? Thank you. x

Itsybitsydoodah · 04/04/2022 23:01

My stbxh has used Divorce Online to do ours. They've been pretty quick at writing the info up and emailed us everything
Only spotted one error which was a misunderstanding and corrected easily enough.

www.divorce-online.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwrqqSBhBbEiwAlQeqGm_aLw--jvWO2qS9sfojXi1SdViKaVsWKQxnANLVg0CRMwAH8LvjkRoCwbQQAvD_BwE

Original poster

Lookabitlikemymum · 04/04/2022 23:05

Thanks @Itsybitsydoodah . There website looks good, but it's nice to hear from someone who used them.

OP posts:

Shibby585 · 05/04/2022 15:30

@lookabitlikemymum

How detailed is the consent order/clean break going to be? Online companies do basic ones, but anything that delve into further detail they won't touch.

Is there a property to sell, are there any assets to split, are there any children involved or any pension sharing?

Original poster

Lookabitlikemymum · 05/04/2022 19:09

One adult child and one who is 16. No pension sharing. We have agreed what we are happy with. He is keeping property, I am keeping decent inheritence. He is paying off the debts and maintenance for 16yo.

It is not 50/50, but exactly what we are happy with.

OP posts:

Shibby585 · 06/04/2022 08:51

@lookabitlikemymum you may be worth seeking legal advice even if it is a free consultation, I know this will cost a little bit more, but if the judge decides the consent order is unfair they will reject it and it will need to be adjusted.

MayMorris · 06/04/2022 19:55

My only experience of online lawyers was my sale/purchase of house during my divorce. Never again…they’re overloaded just now (bear in mind there is a backlog of divorce application cos people have delayed pending law change). They were awful with communicating. I never knew where they were up to. I could only leave messages, no voice calls, and they stat3d it would be 48 house min before they’d respond. Even to do just a quick check on something was frustrating and time consuming. They lost stuff. They’d only work on stuff based on who was shouting loudest at them at the time. Please think carefully about getting on line people to do the actually graft work.

We spent about £800 on local family lawyer for just the draft consent order and then the leg work the solicitor has to do to submit to court ( they have to add it to web site- you can’t I think. Plus they sent ex and I the signature pages and then post dated at point when it was submitted..

Tbh I don’t think on line would have been any cheaper, and I had ability to pop into office to check on things face to face with PA. They were just a standard local family solicitor, but they did what is, after, all a very simple job. Our consent was a little complicated to get into writing so it may be possible could be even a little less.

I would never use an online solicitor ever again, with exception of 1 thing, my ex, at my insistence, had a 30-40 min session with a solicitor to run through consent order before signing it. He just wanted to do absolute minimum but felt it worthwhile to speak to solicitor so we could show he’d taken independent advice. He arranged a one off call- solicitor didn’t do anything else other than that so it was ok.

Original poster

Lookabitlikemymum · 06/04/2022 19:56

@Shibby585 Thanks. Do you mean a high street solicitor could word it in a more acceptable way that the online company solicitor would?

OP posts:

Original poster

Lookabitlikemymum · 06/04/2022 19:58

Thanks @MayMorris . I'll see if I can afford it. Money is very tight all round, but I've taken your and @Shibby585 's advice on board.

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MayMorris · 06/04/2022 19:59

[quote Shibby585]@lookabitlikemymum you may be worth seeking legal advice even if it is a free consultation, I know this will cost a little bit more, but if the judge decides the consent order is unfair they will reject it and it will need to be adjusted.[/quote]
A free consultation will not answer specific points on your individual circumstances. Just the process.

BUT, I agree with what you are saying. I used a solicitor to draw up the consent and then I pushed ex to see an independent solicitor for a 1-off call to do just this. We could add the name of the solicitor to the consent order so court could see we’d both taken legal advice.

He found a solicitor on the Advice Now web site links, and specified exactly what he wanted - just to run through bare min….he was charged around £150 I think for about 30-40 mins conversation on the phone.

We’ll worth doing as you say

MayMorris · 06/04/2022 20:03

@Lookabitlikemymum

Thanks *@MayMorris . I'll see if I can afford it. Money is very tight all round, but I've taken your and @Shibby585* 's advice on board.

You have to use a solicitor for consent order. You won’t get anyone to draft it much below that sort of price unfortunately. My whole divorce inc ExH costs cost £1800 . That was very cheap.

If you aren’t working and on benefits there is help aviailable to cover some of costs.

Sorrry, but you are going to have to outlay some costs. Most solicitors these days will charge between £180 and £250 per hour for every second they talk to you, listen to you, do background reading, do actual work on writing up order, or submitting stuff, or sending stuff out to you. Every second. It soon mounts up.

MayMorris · 06/04/2022 20:08

I should add I’m the first one on some posts to throw my hands up in horror about the amount of money being spent on divorces. Because people get solicitors to do everything including petition (which is just silly as it’s so simple) or becuase they fight each other and need mediation or, god forbid, go all the way to courts.
Someone on here said to a poster that it would cost £10k….wtf?
I’m a bit gobsmacked to be honest that you think I spent a lot- it was very very cheap and we did everything we could ourselves.

Shibby585 · 06/04/2022 20:09

@lookabitlikemymum the starting point for any consent order will be 50/50. If you are not going down that route there is a chance that a judge may reject the consent order if they deem it unfair. A solicitor would be able to tell you whether your proposed consent order will be rejected or accepted, whereas an online consent order place just does the basic ones like clean break and easy ones.

I appreciate it will cost more for you both, but this will give you an idea if it would be accepted or rejected and if it needs adjusting. My husband had a legal friend who provided a draft consent order for his ex wife. It was really basic and even that got questioned and there were no assets to split. The stress of doing it ourselves and filling out all the forms wasn't worth it to be honest.

MayMorris · 06/04/2022 20:22

[quote Shibby585]@lookabitlikemymum the starting point for any consent order will be 50/50. If you are not going down that route there is a chance that a judge may reject the consent order if they deem it unfair. A solicitor would be able to tell you whether your proposed consent order will be rejected or accepted, whereas an online consent order place just does the basic ones like clean break and easy ones.

I appreciate it will cost more for you both, but this will give you an idea if it would be accepted or rejected and if it needs adjusting. My husband had a legal friend who provided a draft consent order for his ex wife. It was really basic and even that got questioned and there were no assets to split. The stress of doing it ourselves and filling out all the forms wasn't worth it to be honest.[/quote]
No. This is not the starting point. Why do people keep saying this?
The starting point is the 10 or so criteria the courts use (and you should use to determine what your settlement might be).
These criteria are based on what is a “fair” settlement given your circumstances and include things like children, length of marriage, previous lifestyle, length of marriage etc etc.
Only once these criteria are met does the court expect 50:50. But it doesn’t mean they won’t approve a not 50:50 if you’ve e explained that in your consent and D81 and they can see you’ve both taken advice.

We did our work. Solicitor just wrote up the draft and submitted . It doesn’t have to be difficult. The courts will question it if it doesn’t meet the 10 criteria and there’s no explanation of why a different arrangement was agreed. As said earlier it helps if you show that both of you have taken some legal advice…but it doesn’t need to be detailed if you are happy that you’ve both agreed, you’ve both declared legally, and you’ve met those 10 or so criteria.

Original poster

Lookabitlikemymum · 06/04/2022 20:40

Thanks again.
@Shibby585 sounds like I'm going to have to give it serious thought.
@MayMorris I don't think I said you spent a lot?
@Itsybitsydoodah Did you have any trouble with the financial order?

This is a minefield! It seems such a shame that we have to spend money on solicitors when we have fairly happily agreed it all, and would rather spend the money on the kids.

OP posts:

Itsybitsydoodah · 06/04/2022 21:04

@Lookabitlikemymum we've only just signed and sent ours back. They made 1 small error on the application which i insisted was corrected as the ramifications could have been huge. The main hold up on ours has been the stbxh dragging his feet.
I'll update as the process continues.

Shibby585 · 06/04/2022 21:14

@MayMorris this isn't about the starting point though, the point is if the OP goes via online they will just draft it up and not give advice on what is fair. You can fill all of that out, meet the criteria and the judge can still question it, speaking from experience. Also as mentioned if there are any mistakes that could be more costly in the long run. Although more expensive speaking to someone qualified will give an idea of what is fair and what is likely to be accepted and if their are any queries having someone qualified to deal with it.

MayMorris · 06/04/2022 22:43

[quote Shibby585]@MayMorris this isn't about the starting point though, the point is if the OP goes via online they will just draft it up and not give advice on what is fair. You can fill all of that out, meet the criteria and the judge can still question it, speaking from experience. Also as mentioned if there are any mistakes that could be more costly in the long run. Although more expensive speaking to someone qualified will give an idea of what is fair and what is likely to be accepted and if their are any queries having someone qualified to deal with it.[/quote]
🥴🤔🙄 this isn’t what I said if you read my comments…I reply don’t understand why you’re saying this to me
In brief I said

Don’t use on line - bad experience …but hey each to their own
50 :50 is not the starting point for court- fair settlement is
Read for yourself what fair settlement means- you don’t need to pay for a solicitors time to find that out. Some excellent guides out there . If you read up and think your situation is particularly complex then sure you will then need solicitor to explain in more detail to your circumstances (eg if business assets involved). Why pay a solicitor £400-500 to explain something that you could spend about £20 to download Advice Now’s excellent booklet and 2 hours of reading on your own.
You must use solIcitor to draft your consent and submit to court.