Divorce/Debt advice

[frantic51]

Ok Namechanged for this one for reasons which will become obvious.

18 months ago DH said he wanted a divorce.

Went to see a legal aid solicitor who confirmed I couldn't fight it and offered to take DH on and "take him to the cleaners".

Sad but not wanting to make the inevitable worse for the DCs, went to DH and said that I didn't feel happy to use that solicitor as I felt he would only make a bad situation worse.

Cut a long story short, it was verbally agreed that I should go and see a family lawyer recommended by family friend who didn't do legal aid and DH would pick up the bill as he was the one wanting and instigating the divorce.

Situation now is that lawyer not communicating with me since November as his account has not been settled. (Except to send emails asing for money which I have been forwarding to DH) Solicitor dropped a PS at the end of his last email to say that he has my Decree Nisi but doesn't know if D (ex?) H has applied for Decree Absolute yet. Presume from this that Decree Nisi is dated more than six weeks ago.

I was under the impression that the divorce couldn't go ahead until financial matters had been tied up. I have only signed one document which I thought was to say that I would not contest the divorce provided we came to a mutually agreeable financial settlement. Apparently it was to say that I agreed to sort out finances outside of the divorce .

Feel I haven't been properly advised and feel very let down by lawyer as well as D (ex?) H.

Any advice, anyone?

You can't stop the divorce now.

See a solicitor who does do legal aid, before they stop doing it.

Don't actually want to stop the divorce, no point as couldn't anyway, I do know that. It takes two to marry but only one to divorce.

No, the point was that I told the solicitor that the financial arrangements were going to be tricky. Ex H very good at hiding income etc. I also told him that I had some credit cards in my name which were used soley by Ex H before the divorce and that I had no money to pay and that it should be part of the divorce agreement that Ex H paid his bill but now solicitor is threatening me with court action. Surely he should have tied up the liability to settle his account as part of the divorce agreement? Or am I just naive and been watching too much American TV?

Have tried to get a legal aid solicitor to look at the situation and advise but as I have already instructed a solicitor no-one else can become involved it seems and when I asked for help re debt to current solicitor I was told I couldn't have legal aid because of an amount of money Ex H deposited in my account at the beginning of this month. The fact that said amount of money barely covered half the rent arrears is neither here nor there apparently,

Surely if you are divorcing you employ your own solicitors who look after your own interests, not someone 'recommended' by your soon-to-be-ex-DH.

Go and employ someone to look after your interests. You know what your DH is like, so act on this knowledge - don't expect him to look after you.

Unfortunately, the contract for the fees is between you and the solicitors, so they are perfectly within their rights not to do any further work until the bill has been paid.

What you could possibly think about is making an interim application for sufficient to pay your legal bills. You'd first have to take them off the court record, though, before you lodged your appln.

LadyLapsang Sorry, the solicitor wasn't recommended by a friend of my Ex H (found out today that the Decree Absolute has gone through as well)he was recommended by someone who goes to my church and whose DC's were at school with my DC's. We know them as a family and, in fact, of the whole family my Ex H knew them the least iyswim.

mumblechum1 Yes, I seem to have got caught in the middle ground here. I just didn't quite qualify for legal aid but don't have sufficient income to be able to afford the solicitor's fees. Hence the agreement that as Ex H was the one wanting a divorce, he would pay.

Now that the Decree Absolute has gone through, Ex H is badgering to get the Financial Settlement sorted but my solicitor says he won't work on that until his outstanding invoice has been paid in full, which Ex H says he can't do until the middle of May at the earliest. It's all getting a bit nasty, which was what I was trying to avoid. DCs got A2s and GCSEs coming up, they're pretty unsettled.

Then, as I said, you should apply now for an interim order to cover the costs.

mumblechum can I apply for that myself or do I need a solicitor? As I said, solicitor won't do anything else until he is paid in full, no other solicitor will act as have already instructed a solicitor on divorce and am just over the barrier for legal aid so back to the "no money to pay" problem.

You will have to do the application yourself unless you can find a solicitor willing to take the risk that you won't pay. The policy of most firms nowadays (mine included) is that they'll insist on the money upfront. there are no guarantees that you'll get the maintenance you ask for unless your opponent is very well off. To examine your case to that degre will take a great deal of time, which is what you pay your money for.

I'm sure you can find another solicitor to take your case on, but they'll still want to know how they will get paid.

BTW It's Resolution here.

Collaborate thanks for that, I guess there must be a website somewhere, I'll go look. Tbh I'm mortified that the invoice hasn't been paid and feel really guilty, though why I should, I don't know! I had to get a solicitor when Ex H left and filed for divorce didn't have the money to pay that kind of invoice but just didn't quite qualify for legal aid. Might have been better if he had asked for money "up front" then Ex H would have had to have paid to get the divorce going I suppose?

yes. I'm surprised they didn't ask for a payment on account in advance of doing any work, we certainly don't open a file unless we have at least £500 upfront.