PA solicitor

[BoxX]

I know this isn’t strictly a legal question but as a LiP, I’m not sure how to I should be handling this situation.

I am divorcing my husband and we’ve got as far as exchanging answers to questionnaires. I’ve relied solely on online advice to fill out the forms and have sometimes made honest mistakes because I haven’t understood something properly but as soon as it’s pointed out, I take steps to rectify my mistakes ASAP. What I am not doing, is trying to frustrate the process or withhold information.

My STBXH on the other hand, has provided scant information and I think is trying to hide information from me.

The problem I’m having is with his solicitor. Somebody already told me he has a reputation within the family courts and other solicitors are intimidated by him. I find him to be passive aggressive and overzealous in his correspondence with me.

For example, I had misunderstood one of his requests for information and instead of simply clarifying his request, he wrote a whole page outlining why/what I had to provide on this one point and finished by saying not only did he want the documentary proof but also proof that I had requested the information he is asking for. Surely by providing the documents, that is ample proof I have requested it? The underlying implication is that I’m purposefully frustrating the process, a line I’m finding hard to understand given his client’s inability to meet any court ordered deadline for forms or documents, delaying the process.

His overall tone is passive aggressive and I feel he is seeking to take advantage of my LiP status by burying me with paperwork and attempting to dictate how and when things are done.

How am I best to handle somebody like this please?

Part of his job is to put forward his view on when things should be done. If you were represented your solicitor would be doing the same.

If you’re disclosing everything and not delaying then that will be very clear to the Court from the paperwork, so you can ignore his arsiness. I’m not sure it’s a LiP issue- he’d probably be much worse to your solicitor if you had one.

Disclosure is a lot of paperwork. It’s a pin regardless of who is representing your ExH.

Anyway basically I wouldn’t give it any headspace.

Hello Op go with your instinct on this - I have experience of being treated less than fairly by x husbands solicitor when i had to resort to LIP due to being let down by my own solicitor.

He is also running up legal fees unnecessarily - keep an eye on this

I would like to hope courts will see through this but as someone who. Shafted don’t count on it.

Good luck

Just do what the court ordered. He can ask for other stuff all he likes, he's not entitled to it unless the Court orders it, so if he can't put his request in a way that explains its reasonableness, he can keep on wanting.

I'm afraid there are a lot of idiots among the ranks of my esteemed colleagues.

he wrote a whole page outlining why/what I had to provide on this one point

Survive by laughing inwardly at how much that whole page would have cost your XH in fees By the time my XH paid his solicitor and his barrister, he came out of our divorce with nothing. I on the other hand was LiP and kept every penny

I think what the Solicitor means is that if you haven’t yet got the document that has been requested he wants to see the letter you wrote to the organisation requesting the info.

Thanks for the replies all. Good advice to keep an eye on the potential to wrack up fees.

The question was regarding proof of my addresses over a disputed period. I thought he was asking for old letters but he was asking me to request the information. I replied saying I didn’t have those letters anymore. He wrote a few paragraphs about how/where/why I could obtain the information with the line about wanting proof of me requesting proof of my address history .
I don’t know why he would want that unless he’s trying to show that I’m frustrating the process

He does other things like send emails with no subject line and no content, just a letter attached in pdf format making it really hard for me to locate the relevant letter or document. I did actually ask him to only send emails with a subject line and he’s complied since

Although I must admit, I let my PA streak get the better of me and I used his proof of proof line, word for word on my follow-up request to him

@MrsBertBibby this is the first time I have seen this admitted on here!