Stopping solicitors services after financial order is drafted

[camberwellred]

Hi there,

Hoping someone may be able to advise...

I have been reluctantly been using solicitors to represent me in my divorce.

We are at the stage whereby the our finances and assets have been agreed and a financial order is being drafted. It has taken us 20k to get to this stage and I am not in the position to pay any more money (this amount includes 5k which my solcitors are insisting on having for monies on account for the forthcoming month, which seems ridiculously high)

Does anyone know if after the financial order is drafted and signed whether my (to be) ex-husband and I can stop using solicitors and complete the process ourselves? Or whether just I can represent myself?

We have two children so I appreciate we have to figure out the living with agreements but I just can't afford to have an open account and keep these payments going as I'm already in a very difficult financial situation but any more is just completely untenable.

Many thanks

x

Yes, I stopped using my solicitor after the consent order was signed. Actually on her suggestion - my ex was still mithering on about wanting the cutlery, pictures etc and every time his solicitor sent an email my solicitor had to charge me. The big things were sorted - ie the house had to be sold with 90% proceeds to me and the pension shares were agreed, giving us equality of income in retirement. Everything else was trivial by that stage. Although my children were grown up by that stage (youngest was 21 and at Uni) so we didn’t have to sort living arrangements etc for them.

Please go to ADVICE NOW link above
they have guides to all bits of process
they tell you when you need a solicitor

sorry you’ve spent a fecking stupid amount of money- why do solicitors do this, why do people do this..please read these guides to stop this going on

Thanks for the referral to advice now @Appleofmyeye2023 It was certainly not my route of choice it was really out of desperation and defence as the dynamics of our relationship were not healthy/he was very controlling with finances.

The last thing I wanted to do was to use solicitors but he had been pushing for this since the beginning, had forced me into a corner and to be honest I was pretty scared. I was also told there would be a spend cap of 6k. I'm now at 20k.

I'm just trying to work out if there is a way to disentangle myself from solicitors after agreeing the financial order so as not to incur any more costs. I have 2 children ages 12 & 17 but am confident to represent myself in court/the children are confident on expressing what their wishes are (as much as I hope they shouldn't have to) So I don't want to get tangled up in yet more legal fights as he is intent on causing damage, which he very much has.

Just dis-instruct them. They can still advice you behind the scenes.

A court won’t want to get involved with children those ages so you’d be best to agree between yourself for anything children related

theyd very much be guided by what the 12 year old wants

If it's a financial 'consent order' then yes. If it's full financial disclosure then you'll probably need to keep your solicitor until the financial order is approved by a judge. Good luck