Confused after speaking to Divorce Lawyers.

[SparklePrincess]

I have now spoken to 3 different lawyers to find out what im likely to end up with after my husbands decision to destroy our family. I just want to know what percentage of the house equity (around 350k) im realistically likely to end up with in order to re house me & the children & if im likely to get any spousal maintenance for myself as well as the child maintenance. I gave up work in order to bring up our young children & have been unable to gain any part time work since then because of his irregular working hours. He earns around 2k a month after tax.
I feel like im banging my head up against a brick wall with all the conflicting advice im getting. Is there any legal person who can advise me please?

It's nigh on impossible to give you a straight answer without more info:

(1) How long were you married
(2) How many kids and how old?

You want to look for a solicitor who is a member of RESOLUTION. They agree to work with the other side in a non-confrontational way - no point wasting all the assets of lawyers fees. Ideally you want to have an agreement in principle in place before you start proceedings.

Also, I'm sorry you are going through this - it's bloody awful and I've seen a lot of people wrung out and exhausted at the end of a divorce.

You'll definately get at least 50% off the equity if not more due to having children - maybe a 70-30 split.

Child maintainance is a standard percentage but based on a 2k monthly earning I cant see he would afford to pay your an allowance after paying his own living costs and child maintenance.

If your only reason for not working was his hours, then the restriction has been removed so his solicitor would argue that. Thought spousal maintenance only really applied to those where money was in abundance and didnt really apply to standard divorce cases.

I have to say that you need to find a solicitor and stick with them rather than shopping around for back of teh envelope advice! The problem any solicitor has with giving you an off the cuff answer is that they 'bargain in the shadow of the court' which means that they're always looking to see what a court might order when they're advising on what you could expect in negotiation. And the problem with that is that there are a large number of factors to be taken into account - length of marriage, age of children, current & potential earnings, the assets available and what the parties' needs are, being some of them. So you can see that if you ended up in Court, three different judges would make three different orders.

By the way,there isn't a 50% minimum rule at all though it is likely you'd get more than 50% IF that was what was required in order to rehouse you and the children. And yes, spouse maintenance is rare but can be ordered if you need it on a short-term basis, say until you get back on your feet with work.

Thanks all. The dc are 7 & 9 & weve been married for 9 years now. Once on my own I could only expect to find a part time job to fit in with term time as I would have no means of childcare. It is pretty likely I would be earning minimum wage so not worth paying out for childcare anyway probably. 70% of the equity would allow us to start again in a reasonable house mortgage free. (I would be unable to get a Mortgage with no income so its important to be able to buy debt free) He would easily be able to get & pay a small mortgage to enable him to buy a flat or a house that needs doing up (He does this for fun ) & still have plenty left over to do what he wants with after maintenance bills etc.
Ive got a solicitors appointment next week, but I dont think they are members of Resolution. Think his solicitors are though.

Hi just read your thread and from personal experience the court would not accept your reasons for not working, if your husband could prove that there are chilminders/holiday clubs in your area. (as your children are of school age) the court would reasonable expect you to find work, so that you are self sufficient. Also if you were on income support through not working all the child maintenance would go to income support. You would be able to claim working/child tax credits. and up to 70% childcare costs would be paid. Your husband would argue this in court. Also nowadays courts like to be fair to both parties and it would not be fair if one person got a house the other a flat, as he would argue he wouldhave the children on certain days so he needs to have reasonable conditions to house the children. Through experience i would advice to try and compromise as much as possible as solicitors bills run into thousands when you cant agree and that money could be put to better use. Also the courts try to help you resolve the issues yourself only at the very end when you cant agree a judge will decide for you.