How do you pay for legal fees?

[DivorcedBedraggledAndFried]

Just that really.

My situation probably needs legal support now, to get to a point of a separation agreement, with a view to uncontested divorce at an appropriate later stage.

I literally have nothing spare to pay for a lawyer and suspect unlikely to gain anything financially from OH in a divorce. If anything, possibly more likelihood of me having to make a settlement to them albeit probably a fairly low figure. No house sale possible, unable to release funds from property (it's complicated) and no other assets.

Trying to find a way through this mess myself to avoid legal fees is causing me a ton of stress.

Can legal fees be paid by instalments? Do I need to get some kind of loan? How have you been able to pay?

Gentle bump...

I contacted a solicitor and had a free telephone consultation with her. She was very helpful. At first she she really only wanted to talk in generalities, but actually in the end gave me some specific answers. We talked about 40 mins.

I tried another solicitor who only gave 20 mins free but she said much the same.

it may be worth asking if solicitors fees can come from the joint money.

Both solicitors are part of Resolution.org - this is a way of doing mediation without going to court I believe. Still costs, but cheaper than court costs.

I'm a solicitor - not family law but I am also divorced. In my experience of instructing family lawyers they will not work for you without some clear arrangement at the outset that ensures all their fees will be paid. That often means that they take their fees out of your share of the house when it is sold, but you mention that's not an option for you.

Solicitors don't like carrying lots of unbilled work in progress so payment by instalments usually only works if the instalments are reasonably high so that the law firm is not exposed to risk of non-payment of a substantial sum.

@sleepymum50 thank you. I did have a very helpful one-off session with a lawyer last year. At the time I was quite relaxed and didn't feel the need to move quickly to formalise the separation/divorce. Circumstances have changed now though hence wanting to line the ducks up a bit better

@1Wanda1 thank you. Of course it does make perfect sense in terms of the firm wanting to be paid! I just don't know where I will get the funds from.

Do you need a separation agreement? People manage without and if you are not amicable he can push ahead with a divorce anyway.

This is one of the worst parts of divorce for me. The legal fees have been gruelling even by paying in installments. Some things had to be paid in full eg pension reports and house surveys. We did have property and pension. It's cost well over 7000

If you can’t afford to pay then could you start saving, and start the procedure when you have enough?

See if the costs can be paid out of the financial settlement?

Interest free credit cards for me, to be paid back when I can 🙄

I'm getting worried about solicitor fees as I have £1000 left in my bank account after paying fees for almost 2 years. Haven't got anywhere and stbxh's solicitor seems to be much more powerful than mine. They are now pushing for mediation as stbxh is set to get almost double of assets to me even though I have a child under 18 living with me full time and he doesn't pay CM.
I am really regretting taking on the solicitor I have as I'm now running out of money and stuck as to what to do next.

£250 an hour for, what seems, copied letters (with name changes) sent to his solicitors. Think they use them for all clients and charge a ridiculous amount for the privilege!! Numerous mistakes made with personal details along the course too!

Did you get one with a long period on it before you'd have to pay interest?

Hi OP. Go onto Advice Now website and get your hands on their diy guides for how to get a financial settlement and how to divorce. They cost £20 each to download but will save you a fortune.
The brilliant thing about them is that they tell you what you need to get a solicitor to do, where a solicitor may be helpful and where you don’t need a solicitor at all. They also provide a list of solicitor who agree to work at reasonable rates to do just the specific tasks you need.

you can and should raise your divorce petition yourself on line. You don’t need a solicitor at all for that. You do this on government web site which is really easy to use. There is reference in there about how to apply for help with court fees (%these are I think now just under £600) - that’s available to people I think on benefits etc.
solicitors will require paying for work, and most want fees upfront. Expect to pay around £200 ish inc VAT per hour. As mediation uses solicitors you will be paying that too for every conversation, mediation session etc. my advice is to explain to stbex that you neither can afford to take your issues to court or argue. You’re best bet is to agree amicably and just get solicitors to do minimum possible around legal speak consent order and child arrangements, to keep cost low. Maybe pass the Advice Now guides on to him as well so he can see it is much better to work together on sorting it out and compromising. Of course if he is abusive or controlling then you can’t- maybe talk to a womens aid organisation then on how they recommend funding it.
if you can do it amicably, agree as part of that how legal costs will be covered. You may need to pay on credit card and then do a zero balance transfer , or apply to bank for short term loan to pay for it if all other options have been ruled out . But main thing is keep costs as low as possible by doing most work yourself. It isn’t difficult technically…if you can agree.

See my answer below to Op. would Advice Now guides be helpful to you to figure out how to move forwards. Seems like your solicitors have made things worse than they need to be.

@EmilyBolton thank you so much, this is super helpful.