do I need a solicitor for this bit (divorce)?

[Handywoman]

I kicked out my crappy, angry, low level EA stbxh nearly a year ago.

I took advice from a solicitor and we now have a signed separation agreement. Our finances are now separated, he has taken his lump sum, the house is now in my name. He basically has the kids EOW when I work. In terms of legal fees I have paid about £900 legal fees.

Because my stbxh is loathe to discuss the end of our marriage or agree to being crap, he balked at me divorcing him for unreasonable behaviour. In order to keep things on an even keel I agreed to wait the two years.

The only thing is my solicitor gave me an estimate of a further £1,500 for legal fees relating to the actual divorce.

My question is, now that I have the separation agreement, can I simply go ahead and do the divorce myself, avoiding any further legal fees?

I did my own divorce, also after a separation agreement that dealt with all the money. IMO, that's the difficult bit, although we didn't have any DC to provide for. The divorce itself entailed a few forms and court fees of about £250 - this was going back about 10 years, but I wouldn't have thought the court fees will have changed much.
I am a solicitor, but in a completely unrelated area of law and didn't need any legal knowledge to fill in the forms.

If you Google Court Service Family Forms you will find the forms (sorry - would paste a link, but I'm on the iPad) -scroll down the list to the forms beginning with D. The first one you will need is the Petition. They include guidance and are designed to help someone who does not have legal representation. Have a look at the forms and if you feel comfortable tackling them, then go for it. Good luck!

The simple answer to that is yes. Myself and my first husband were fortunate, in that we agreed to divid the assets ourselves, to avoid legal fees. you only need a solicitor to represent you, when both parties can't agree on who is having what!

If you are now seperated, it's just a matter of doing the paper work in two years time. I'm sure your ex won't want to pay more than he has to either.

merlin

I am also interested in this. Trouble is, I hate forms. But my solicitor has quoted about 1150 for a divorce which I think is straightforward as no money or DC access to sort out. I'm in Scotland. Anyone any experience of doing it themselves?

In England & Wales although a separation agreement may carry some weight isn't legally binding or enforceable. You need a solicitor to draft the terms of the agreement into a consent order which is binding and enforceable once it has been ratified by the court. The court fee for the divorce application in is currently £410.

In Scotland you can divorce using the simplified procedure (forms available to download from Scottish Courts website) as long as there are no outstanding financial issues or children under 16. If there are children under 16 you will need to use the Ordinary Procedure and then most people will require a solicitor to draft the papers. £1150 would probably cover this.

STIDW. Thanks for that. There are DC involved although we sort access and it is amicable, so looks like pay the large fee or wait til youngest turns 16?

Yes, you can wait until youngest turns 16. That's exactly what we did!

Okay. It's not that long til 2021, is it?!

NOt really, but you need to be careful about the consequences in your circumstances if one of you has an untimely death whilst you are still married and there is no separation agreement settling finances.

Do I need to have a solicitor draft the separation agreement into a court order? Can I do that myself????

Sorry, consent order.

In theory you can draft a consent order yourself and recently a list of examples was published for litigants in person. The problem is in practice doing it yourself is fraught with difficulties and can be a false economy. £1k-£2k solicitors' fees for a consent order pales into insignificance when it comes to splitting assets worth tens of thousands or compared to the costs involved if there are problems later such as enforcement or when there are grounds to have the consent order set aside - non-disclosure, no independent legal advice, terms which do not comply with the law or undue pressure.

I've gone for a Wikivorce, which is a managed divorce and consent order for about £300. You then also pay the court fees of about £400 so stbxh are splitting it. I may consult a solicitor for the financial stuff, although we have broadly agreed terms, just need it in a binding legal format, how to sign over the house etc.