Do I need a solicitor?

[ThisPoisedGoldGuide]

Hello!

Just starting the divorce. We have a house with 13 years left on the mortgage, approx 120k equity. I have a teacher pension, he has an NHS pension, his will be more valuable than mine as I have worked part time for the last 8 years due to having kids.

If we both worked full time out income would be very similar, if anything mine slightly higher. However, I am desperate to stay at the school I currently work at and the most hours I could probably get would be 4 days starting next September.

We are amicable through gritted teeth at the minute, if we can agree terms, could we go ahead without a solicitor? My hunch is we need one to negotiate around the pensions but can this be done through mediation?

I'm hoping if we can stay amicable that we could just use one solicitor and split the cost.

I've had my free half hour with a solicitor who was really impressive and I'm keen to go with her- she said not to risk doing it on your own and potentially get yourself a worse deal. Which I do get, but at the same time, she would say that wouldn't she because she wants the business?! 🤣

Thanks for any advice from anyone who is currently there or has been there in the past ❤️

I would do what you can to agree a split and then engage a solicitor to write up the consent order if you’ve agreed, or use mediation if you can’t agree. Request your CETVs for your pensions so you have them as they take a little while. Get the house valued and check your mortgage capacity if that’s relevant.

I put all our details onto a spreadsheet and suggested a split to my husband…we tweaked and changed things and then I sent that to my solicitor. She questioned some things (we have a 60/40 split in his favour) and I explained and she adjusted the D81 to make it clear why this was the case and wrote up the consent order and pension sharing order (we have Teachers and Local Government). It hasn’t been court agreed yet but her input was minimal because we’d done the basics.

You can agree between you but should have up to date valuations on pensions

and a settlement should be based on your full time earnings not your current pt, or current + uc top up if you chose ie he won’t have to forfeit higher asset split to you because you chose to not maximise your earnings

Thank you both- I'm going to go ahead and unstruct the solicitor just to get the ball rolling, then think we both need to request the CETVs ASAP as I've heard that can take ages too. Then I'll get the house valuations done and I have a family friend who is a financial advisor who can help me with realistic mortgage capacity. Then go begging to my headteacher to try and get something in place for September next year at least. It's telling about the state of the marriage that I'm more distraught about potentially having to lose my job than the husband.

It is also best that you each have independent advice on the proposed agreement even if you jointly fund one to draw up the orders.

Thank you- the solicitor did say that to me in the free consultation, that he might be happy to go along with my solicitor now but at the time it comes to reviewing pensions he will probably want some independent advice. I suppose the absolute key thing is to agree on as much as possible in advance and keep the legal involvement to a minimum, while also making sure neither of us screws ourselves over.