Starting divorce - solicitors/Amicable

[Welcomeking]

For context of the opinions I'd like if possible are married 17 years. Joint mortgage. 335k equity. One child age 15. Both government pensions. He earns double per annum salary and has a much bigger pension than me.

I am about to apply for a cetv of my pension before initiating divorce. He reports he has requested his but has had no response to emails. Part of me feels he is either stalling or hasn't done this. I may be wrong.

Question is the divorce should be relatively straightforward in terms of splitting assets as we have minimal apart from savings, car, pensions and house.

We are relatively amicable and discussed going with Amicable to make this process easy. We were quoted £5910 for their full support. He is keen for us to not pay this and do it ourselves. My gut feeling is it has the potential to drag on/me coming out with a poor deal and get a bit messy.

Obviously near off 6k takes a big chunk of our 17k savings but...

Can I have your thoughts from a legal perspective please.

Not from a legal perspective but from what youve said id be more determined to
not do it yourself now. How does he explain he wants to do it yourselves?

Yes, my feelings to @DorothyStorm . His rationale for wanting to do it ourselves is predominantly cost related (approx 6k) from Amicable or use of our own solicitors.

Never heard of Amicable but what are they offering for the 6K?

Personally - pay for a one off consultation with a solicitor by yourself to find out your rights. That will be the best £200 you will ever spend.

My other advice? If one ex-spouse is enthusiastically pushing something then open your eyes, very wide.

Edit - BTW, I'm pushing a divorce though myself and so far I've only used a solicitor at the very beginning to find out my rights. From that we both filled in Form E and had a chat about the split and based on the legal advice have come to a mutual decision roughly equal. We will be using a solicitor to give it a once over and then draft it properly for a judge to sign off. The admin side is being done online by myself.

@INeedAnotherName I did already do that a few months ago. I paid for a one hour consultation fee so based on the solicitors understanding at the time, albeit without full financial disclosure I may be entitled to a larger proportion of the equity.

This is what is included

What's included?
Your own Divorce Specialist – a dedicated expert to guide you through negotiations, manage the legal process and all court correspondence

One-to-one support – individual assistance and advice between joint sessions from your Divorce Specialist

Your divorce – if you haven’t started your divorce already, we'll do this for free. If you have, we'll support you with the rest of the process

Full financial disclosure – a guided online form to submit personal and joint financial details, as required for your consent order

Complete assessment of options – explore multiple outcomes for your property, pensions, savings and any other part of your agreement with our expert legal guidance

All legal documents – a court-ready consent order, including Form D81, Form A and a pension sharing order if applicable

Fixed fees – transparent prices including VAT, with flexible payment plans to spread the cost

Extra sessions – purchase additional one-hour sessions at £300 each if you need more time to reach an agreement

Your divorce – if you haven’t started your divorce already, we'll do this for free. If you have, we'll support you with the rest of the process
It's only £600 and you just click yes or no links in an email. Even stupid me has got as far as the Decree Absolute stage (waiting on court for financials).

Full financial disclosure – a guided online form to submit personal and joint financial details, as required for your consent order
That is Form E. Download it from gov.uk for free.
YouTube has tutorials on how to fill it in, step by step.

One-to-one support – individual assistance and advice between joint sessions from your Divorce Specialist
Is that one each or one between you? Because if it's one between you then the first bit of disagreement they won't be able to help/support you. Honestly? I can see his pension as the area he is going to fight you tooth and nail. It's going to be big if he's on double your pay/gov pension.

If you are truly amicable then do as much as you can yourselves but get your own solicitor to check it before doing the next stage. One off consultations throughout will be the cheapest/maybe safest way as they will put YOUR interests first.

Good luck OP.

Thank you the one to one support will be individually. Do you mean one off consultations with Amicable or a
our own solicitor @INeedAnotherName ? I think individually we are potentially looking at a good thousand or so if we didnt go with Amicable. My preference for Amicsble is that its all in one place instead of waiting on each other's solicitors etc.

I meant one off with your own solicitor, however if Amicable are providing two different solicitors (one each) then it might be okay.

I have my own bias here tbh as I never trust two people working for the same firm to be truly independent. I always fear backroom deals being made and will always wonder if they really had my best interests at heart or just wanted their money quickly. But that might be my tinfoil hat speaking 😂

I'd want my own solicitor and full disclosure of his pension and bank statements. Yes it's tempting to just get it all done asap but you only get one shot here and it will affect the rest of your life as far as housing etc.

Amicable don't employ solicitors. From what I can tell from their website many are former solicitors. They are not regulated by any legal watchdog.

They say they give both of you advice together, but that can now be done by a qualified lawyer. A number of law firms now offer this - eg this one https://www.evolvefamilylaw.co.uk/amicable-divorce/

Amicable will do an online consent order for £900. £450 each. This is if you are in agreement.
Luckily you are both in the same type of pension scheme. When both CETV come through, you should split them 50/50. Will your H agree to this? Regarding the equity, will your child live with you? If so maybe you should get additional equity to house you both. Would your H agree to this too?
If he is reasonable you could go for the £900 amicable deal. If not the 6K plan might be necessary.

I did my divorce myself (£600 ish on gov.uk) and got my financial order for about £550 inc pension sharing order.

If you are actually amicable as me and ex DH were then Amicable is a massive rip off. Did the whole divorce, financial order and pension sharing order for less than £1,200. It's really not hard.

Thanks both. I think I'm possibly overcomplicating it. Getting our and applying for our cetv is a bit of a stumbling block at the moment. I need my employer (finance department) to complete one part of the form and H is awaiting a response too and thats before we apply for the cetv.

I think we will continue to be amicable and actually thinks I should have a bigger portion of the equity and pension when it comes but we will see.

He has mentioned us divorcing the 'simple' way and then staying in the house till DD is 18 (2.5 years away). Not quite sure how that will work but I'll seek some legal advice. We're quite able to rub along together ok but after a divorce I'm not so sure...

Hi, could you let me know who did your co sent order please.

@MissmyoldLab sure. I used https://www.ols-solicitors.co.uk/ I highly recommend them. I had a good experience, they answered all my questions and did a great job.