Litigant in person- financial settlement

[ButtonMoonMrsSpoon]

Hi, can anyone advise on this please. It's for my partner.
Divorce has been dragging on and on over financial settlement. Assets worth around 2 mil. They were both high earners.
He has got a solicitor but due to recent diagnosis and treatment for cancer can no longer afford it. They want £20 k upfront on account. Was self employed but ended up on UC due to the cancer. Still unable to work due to severe side effects.
His ex is being a nightmare. Partner just wants the divorce sorted so he can move on.
He has asked for 800k, she has offered less than 30k.
She is a high earner, mortgage free. They were married 19 years. 2 kids age 15 and 17. He has used the last of his savings to put into the kids accounts for current and future use. Around £200k. This is when he thought he was going to die.
He now has absolutely nothing, too ill to work, no home and is staying at mine a few nights or his mates when he needs to go to hospital in another area.
Plus he can't get decree absolute until financial settlement has been reached.
For note, he was the parent with most of the care as he worked his business around the kids while she worked. Both had similar high incomes. He did all childcare in holidays and cooking, housework etc and did his work during school hours, evenings and weekends.
Lots of work has been done by the solicitors but getting no where and partner wants to go to court and put an end to the games.
Can he drop the solicitor and go directly to court. Will he have to get all financial paperwork again or will solicitor give him his paperwork back? He's done everything for the settlement so solicitor has all the paperwork. Can she withhold this if he drops her as it took him ages to get everything.
She's recently reduced her hours to part time too citing childcare but the kids are old enough to not need this. still earns 90k plus bonuses for part time.
Partner just wants to be free of her but given his health needs enough to start again. There is a highish chance of recurrence of the cancer too and he's still in and out of hospital.
We have looked at doing the court thing ourselves but can't find out about getting all the paperwork again.
This has been dragging on for nearly 2 years. She just wants him to die.
Any advice appreciated.

He can do most of the work himself and push to court
he should be pushing fir minimum 50% of assets and based on length of marriage is highly likely be awarded that

Yes he can get copies of the key documents such as Form E as they belong to him, not the solicitor. If he hasn’t been to mediation then he should really try that (it’s cheaper) and a good mediator will reinforce the 50/50 based on the length of marriage and as there are children involved he can access a mediation voucher.

Is £800,000 50% of the assets?

I’m sorry he is so poorly but he has siphoned off his assets of 200k to his children so that he now looks poor. That’s daft. He needs to spend that on a barrister to represent him in court.

I'm so sorry for what you're both going through. I'm wary of solicitors now after how I started my divorce with one - same issue of not getting much done. This is not the case with all solicitors but it happens way too much. You partner can definitely drop them and do it himself. It's 100% possible with all the resources online.
Join a few facebook groups on divorce and separation, you'll get so much good advice there. Take advantage of solicitors' free hours and have your questions ready so you use your time well. Also see if these help guides I used can help - https://www.iamlip.com/ they take you through the entire process for free. I used it when I couldn't afford to keep a solicitor and my divorce was going nowhere. There's also some others that the other mumsnet people post on 'divorce/separation' so check them out as that might help you too. I think it's at the top of the page.

Thank you for you're lovely advice, I will look into it all.
As for him giving his kids £200k. It was put into an account for them for education costs etc when the hospital initially said there was nothing they could do for him.
He just wants it done so he can start again with this second chance at life that he has.
Unfortunately the solicitors really have been dragging it out so we will definitely attempt this between us. I'm sure we can muddle through it but definitely no money for solicitors going forward now.
Thank you all again xx

Can he get any of the £200k back?
With joint assets of £2M and his ex only 'offering' £30k, can your partner really afford to do this on his own?
Have you approached different solicitors who may accept payment on settlement?

No, it's less than 50,% but he just wants to get it done.

He won't as the way he sees it is that money is for his kids education so he won't dream of taking that back.
With regard to solicitors, it's been dragging for nearly 2 years and he's already spent more than he wants and now reached the point of no money left.
I suppose we could look at changing solicitors but then my question is would he have to do all the paperwork again or would the current solicitor transfer it over. He's done form E and everything else required. The solicitors have it all. Mentally he would find it very difficult to get it all again as his health is very poor.

I don't even want to phone the solicitors and ask as they charge £35 for us to speak to them.

Your solicitor should release your entire file to you if you ask. They may charge but you can usually just collect it in person.

There was no reason for him to give all his cash of 200k to his children. He could have just drawn up a will if he was anxious about financial planning. As it is, he has 200k already but has chosen to spend it. That will undoubtedly be considered as part of the settlement.

Good Luck

My head is exploding that someone who had 200k in cash and has circa 2 million in joint assets, is somehow entitled to universal credit.

He just needed a will in order to leave his money to his kids.

This whole set up looks dodgy. Tax dodge? Hiding assets?

What are the joint assets? Is it just one very expensive house?

Did he not have critical illness/life insurance? High earners usually do.

You can dispense with the solicitor if you like, but a good barrister is worth their weight in gold, especially with the figures involved. Can't he arrange to pay from the settlement? Or take take money from the kids account and pay it back after settlement? It must be quite the back story for his wife to be this level of arsehole?

Something doesn’t sound right here OP.

A high earner with over £2m of assets gives away his last £200k, claims UC and now has no money to pay for a solicitor?

Either his wife is abusive or not all is as it seems. How long have you been together?

Nothing dodgy here apart from his ex. Tax dodge, nope. Hiding assets, nope
Just a greedy ex who was having an affair and thought her luck was in when he got cancer.
Very toxic marriage at the end.
Why wouldn't he be able to claim UC, he has nothing at all and this has all been confirmed by UC. Not until financial settlement has been reached.
The money to his kids as I explained was to a rationally thinking person something he could have been living on now. Unfortunately he wasn't thinking rationally at the time. All he heard was that his cancer was not treatable. He was in a panic and thought his time was up. He wanted his kids to have what was his and this was in the form of an inheritance from his dad. Pretty commendable really that there are decent dad's out there.
So, no he can't get the money back. No access to his kids accounts and to be fair I don't even think he would. His kids are his world.
So no backstory really, no dodgy tax avoidance or anything like that. Just a guy who has a dodgy toxic ex and who has beaten the cancer but needs his money to start again.
Assets are mostly tied up in the former marital home and pensions.
As for how long I've been with him, a year, just at the end of his treatment and I've seen all the solicitors letters etc unfortunately as I'm trying to help him wade through it. He's not hidden anything from me.

But as has been pointed out he didn't need to give every penny he owns to his children while he was still alive. This is what wills, and if necessary, trusts are for. From the outside it certainly looks odd. Inheritances are granted after death, not before.

UC can and do penalise people for intentionally disposing of capital, hence the question.

In my opinion he needs to priorotize legal representation to push proceedings through. I'd be going for a forced sale if feasible.

Does he not have critical illness/life insurance? There might be legal or financial provision through that.

He was a very rich man with 200k and he has given it all away. It’s hard to feel sorry for him tbh. He’s made a choice to be in this position.

IME courts (judges) do not like LIP particularly if there is no reason for it, as here. Paying at least for a barrister would be the most sensible option, as has been suggested.

these are unwise choices he has made: be careful not to get financially sucked into this yourself.

Hi OP. To answer one of your main questions, if your DP decides to change solicitor or self-represent, he is entitled to a copy of his file from his solicitor, provided that he has paid his bills in full (if not, the solicitor has a lien over his file). So he can instruct them to send his file to either new solicitors or to him. He also needs to tell his solicitor if he is changing solicitor or self-representing, so that the solicitor's firm can come off the court record.

The file will not necessarily contain every piece of work product, but will contain all inter-party communications. He will already have any emails containing advice from the solicitors (tbh he should also already have copies of all inter-party correspondence).

Someone will have access to the children s accounts though. His wife?

The solicitors have seen the pot and hence they will drag it.

Keeping aside the "diversion" of £200K or the morality behind it, if he has been in a marriage for so long then he is entitled to a min 50% of the total pot.

And I don't see why he shouldn't unless there are other things that we are not aware of.

Is this someone you knew socially for a while and started dating a year ago or someone you met a year ago (online?). I’ll be honest, if it’s the latter I’d be doing some research to validate what he’s saying. Did you ever know him while he was successfully working? Are you absolutely sure he’s not been living off his wife for years and she decided to kick him out? I’m sorry but this story isn’t ringing true