RE: Legal Advice- Am I in debt?

[Bina20]

Hi I am divorced, cut a long story short, my ex- husband agreed to settle a divorce settlement for 22k in court, signed all the offical documents for confirmation.
He wanted to pay in 2 installements of the total amount. Then the cheque arrived at the solictors it was damaged the solictor said the bank refused to cash it, therefore had to be sent back.
I never received the divorce settlement money, the solicitor has billed me.
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This is what I e-mailed my solicitor:-

"Hi ,

I would like to complain about the courts, not chasing up and pressurizing my ex-husband to re-send the damaged Divorce Settlement cheque, which was the initial agreement, but was never fulfilled. The money would have helped cover my costs. How can I complain about the courts not enforcing this on him?

I also don't understand why I was not billed monthly as I had requested from you, I would have had an idea of what you were charging. The Legal Aid charges will not cover all my outstanding costs.

I will start part-time work next week for only three months (end of March) via an agency, and will not be a permanent post.

What is my position now, am I now in debt?

I am worried about the £11,586.36 bill how it will affect the children's lives, as I have £2,298.05 in my account, and a couple of hundred each in the children's bank.

Will I need to pay in installments for years to come even though I do not have any assets or property?

Please could you forward this e-mail to the Legal Aid Service, as it would show them that how I am unable to repay the debt.
Thankyou."
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I now rent a house, as our marital home (it was in his name) was sold without my permission. He has another house in his name, had it remorgaged, and had lodgers living there instead.

I am clueless of Legal Law, as I have always worked in the education sectors. :/
I am really worried, please can someone help and advise me?

Your solicitors should have chased up the cheque if it was made out to them. It may be that you need to go back to court to get the money, you really need to talk to your sopliciotrs to find out the exact situation & what you owe.

Thanks for the advice RedHelenB, it seems like the solicitors are going to charge me more for chasing up the cheque. They even charged me for the minutes they talked to me. I would like to complain about the courts as they did not enforce the cheque to be paid again, after all it was under their instructions not the solicitors.

I would like to contact Legal Aid, how do I do that?

I can't really offer any practical help, I'm afraid but your solicitor doesn't seem to have done a very good job.

Personally I think you should be complaining to the Law Society about your solicitor!

Hope someone comes along with better advice.

The courts will force your ex to pay again if you ask them to do so and pay the necessary fees. At the moment the courts don't even know that your ex hasn't paid. It is up to you to take action to enforce court orders if necessary.

Of course your solicitor charges you for the time they spend on your case, including the time they spend talking to you. I don't know what else you expected.

Solicitors will charge for their time but to make sure you only get charged for what you actually want, often clear and written instruction to your solicitor is best.

I've been through the courts a fair bit and some solicitors are so bad, I would write them a formal letter. Telling them exactly what I wanted them to do.

I'm not sure whether you're on legal aid or not. Can you clarify? You mention being billed monthly yet say you're on legal aid. If you are on legal aid it simply doesn't work like that. The solicitors bill the LSC (your reference to the Legal Aid Service suggests to me you're not in England or Wales) at the end of the case but have to periodically (every 6 months) remind a client about how costs are accruing.

Where are you based? Legal Aid is different in the 3 UK jurisdictions.

PRH is right - you have to enforce your own orders. Your solicitors will have to amend your legal aid certificate to be able to take it back to court and get paid for doing so.

There was talk of a law change recently too, about legal aid not being allowed for family law - but I'm not sure if that has taken effect yet. It's something the Cons want to bring in (or have brought in).

Latest date for that is April 2013

As PRH and Collaborate have said, it's not the court's job to enforce orders if no one tells them that they haven't been fulfilled.

Your solicitor should have initially written to the other side to demand payment, and if not forthcoming, made an application to the court for enforcement.

I'm not sure why you think the solicitors shouldn't be charging for their time -they are running a business, and normally all time is charged for.

Thanks for the advice, I've e-mailed the courts myself, I understand that solicitors are running a business, but to charge for saying "Hello how was your weekend"????!!!, timed as being 12 minutes!
Outrageous.
They should tell you before hand that they charge for small chit chat.

My solictor gave me false promises in getting my 22k divorce settlement. She sent the 11k (first installment paid to me back to me ex) without consulting with me, as the bank would not cash a water damaged cheque. She could have frozen his account, is that right?
What actions can I take? Writing to the Legal Ombudsman?
As they maybe taking it to the courts, as in deciding how much I should pay my bill.

Not sure at all what you're trying to say. Too disjointed.

I agree that it is too disjointed to follow. However, one thing stands out. Your solicitor did not, as far as I can see, send £11k back. You've told us the bank would not cash the cheque. Your solicitor therefore never had the £11k. She may have returned a worthless cheque but that is all she did. And a bank will not freeze someone's account just because a solicitor asks them to.

It's not too dis-jointed, please read the first top page, it is in depth. I just summarized at the bottom. Thanks for your replies people. Happy belatted Christmas and a Happy New Year :)