family law solicitor

How To Approach Funding Your Divorce

It is difficult for anyone to predict how much you will spend on legal costs by the end of your divorce case.

How long your case takes and how much it costs is actually as dependent on you and your ex as much as anything else.

The more the two of you disagree, the longer the case is likely to take and the more you both risk spending on legal costs to get everything resolved.

Solicitor’s Costs

When you make enquiries of solicitor firms to decide who you would like to work with in your divorce, make sure you ask questions about their charges and invoicing system. You’ll want to know;

Do they offer a fixed fee for the divorce element of the case?
Who has conduct of your file and what are their charges?
Who else may be working on your file and what are their charges?
How much is the first meeting?
How often do they invoice?
What monies on account do they require to start your case, if any?

This information will be set out again in a letter to you, once you have confirmed you wish to proceed with this particular solicitor.

What’s involved

Your overall divorce case is likely to involve two or three main issues:

The dissolution of your marriage – the divorce itself
Finances – reaching a financial settlement with your ex
Children arrangements – If you have children, you will need to reach agreement on their care arrangements as well as financial support for them (if they are under 18, in full term education or require long term care).

Paying for your divorce case

There are various ways in which you can pay your solicitor’s invoices. These are as follows;

1. Income

If you earn sufficiently, you may be able to simply pay the solicitor’s invoices as they come in.

2. Savings

You may have sufficient capital in savings accounts in your sole name, from which you can pay your solicitor’s fees. Or, you may reach an agreement with your spouse for both of you to use joint funds to meet your legal costs.

3. Your Spouse

You may reach an agreement with your spouse for them to pay your legal costs. This may be relevant if you don’t work, have no other form of income and your spouse has been the breadwinner during the marriage.

4. Loans

You may need to consider taking out a loan from a family member or friend or a bank loan. If you are lent monies by a friend/relative, you will need to show this is in fact a loan and not a gift. The lender can provide a letter to prove this and that they will be expecting the monies to be paid back.

5. Litigation Funding

Your solicitor can talk to you about options available for “litigation funding”. This is a type of loan used in divorce cases to provide someone who does not have any other form of meeting their legal costs with the funds to do so. It is, however, worth bearing in mind that this is a loan and these types of loans usually have very high interest rates.

6. Sears Tooth Agreement

This involves you reaching an agreement with your solicitor that they will get paid in full from your financial settlement before you receive any monies. These types of agreements are now fairly unusual but you could still ask whether your solicitor offers this.

How to keep your legal costs down

The best way to do this is to ensure you only use your solicitor for what they should be used for, i.e. legal representation and formal legal advice. Their role is not to provide emotional support and for this you should look to work with a divorce coach and/or counsellor. Working with a divorce coach/consultant such as myself can also help save you a lot of money on your legal costs.

For more tips on your legal costs, please click on the following links:

5 Tips To Save Money On Your Divorce

How To Get Financially Ready For Divorce

If you have found the tips in this blog useful then you’ll find lots more in my eBooks, which you can purchase and download today.

If you’d like to work with me 1:1, for help preparing financially for your divorce/or support during or after the divorce process, please get in touch to find out how I can help.

Why I became a divorce consultant.

What To Avoid When Choosing Your Divorce Solicitor – 7 Quick Tips

By Rhiannon Ford

In my blog How To Choose Your Divorce Solicitor you’ll see my advice on how best to find and choose the person to represent you in your divorce.

Making a bad decision could be detrimental to both your legal case as well as you personally (and perhaps financially). Your solicitor is a vital member of your support team and you need to feel confident and comfortable with them and how they are handling your case. It is possible to change solicitors if you realise you have not made the right decision but don’t rush to do so until you’ve worked out whether they are in fact the wrong person (professionally or personally) or whether your experience would be the same elsewhere.

Here are my 7 quick tips on what to avoid when choosing the solicitor for your divorce…

1. A solicitor who doesn’t specialise in family law (divorce)

It is much better to have a solicitor who only does family law rather than a general practitioner. This helps ensure the solicitor has plenty of knowledge and experience in family law cases and they are also more likely to be up to date on changes in the law.

2. The solicitor firm you used for your will or buying your house

… if they do not have a family law specialist solicitor in their firm – just because the solicitor is familiar to you doesn’t mean they are the best person to represent you in your divorce.

3. Someone your friend used for their divorce

Make sure you do your own research on them (and other options) to make sure you would be happy working with them and to establish whether they are suitable for your case.

4. The cheapest solicitor you can find

This is a false economy and could end up costing you more money in the long run if they are not efficient and competent. A cheaper solicitor may be less experienced and therefore could take longer to do things on your case. This could end up costing you more in the long run than a more expensive but experienced solicitor.

5. Choosing the nearest solicitor to where you live

You may not actually meet with your solicitor face to face very much at all so it’s worth choosing somebody who is a good lawyer rather than someone who is conveniently located.

6. Choosing a non resolution member solicitor

I always advise my clients to choose a solicitor who is a member of Resolution. This is because –

“Resolution members follow a Code of Practice that promotes a constructive approach to family issues and considers the needs of the whole family, in particular the best interests of children.”

7. Choosing a solicitor who makes you promises at the beginning of your case about what settlement they will get for you.

Nobody can predict 100% what the outcome of your case will be, particularly right at the beginning of a case, when financial disclosure has not even taken place.

For my tips on how to choose the best divorce solicitor, click on the link to read my blog –

How To Choose Your Divorce Solicitor

If you have found the tips in this blog useful then you’ll find lots more in my eBooks, which you can purchase and download today.

If you’d like to work with me 1:1, for help preparing for meetings with your solicitor/or support during meetings, please get in touch to find out how I can help.

Why I became a divorce consultant.

How to Choose Your Divorce Solicitor

By Rhiannon Ford

No one gets married thinking they will ever have to face a divorce. It is a very challenging time in people’s lives and you may be feeling a bit lost and confused. It is crucial to put a good support team in place to help you navigate your divorce journey.

As well as the support from family and friends you will need to consider hiring some divorce professionals. One of the first members of your professional team should be your family law solicitor. However, how do you choose who to instruct? You know the divorce process can be challenging and that solicitors cost money, so you may be worried about getting it wrong. Perhaps you don’t know where to start to find the right solicitor for you and your case?

It is important for you to feel confident and comfortable with your legal representation for your divorce. It is a personal relationship and you will be working closely with someone who is going to learn a lot of personal information about your family and finances. It’s not a decision that should be rushed or taken lightly.

Here are my top tips for how to choose the best family law solicitor for you:

Make sure they are a solicitor who works exclusively in family law

It is important that you have a solicitor who is a family law specialist and practices solely in this area of law. It should mean they have plenty of experience in this area of law and are up date to with the law etc. Not having a family law specialist solicitor could be detrimental to your divorce experience and the outcome of your case. They may not be as efficient or knowledgeable in family law matters, meaning things could take longer to get done and could end up costing you more money in legal fees. The best way to investigate whether a solicitor is a family law specialist, is to look them up on the “Find a Member” page on the Resolution website –http://www.resolution.org.uk/findamember/

Get recommendations from people with experience with divorce

People who have also been through a divorce can be a very useful source for recommendations .You can ask them all about the solicitor they used, what they were like to work with and how they felt they managed their divorce case. Everyone’s experience is different, so just because your friend had a particular experience, doesn’t mean you’ll have the same but getting their thoughts can help you decide who to consider appointing and/or perhaps who to avoid. However, you shouldn’t make your decision until you done some further research. If you do not have anyone to ask speak to a divorce coach or go to the Resolution website (see below).

Make sure the solicitor is a member of Resolution

Resolution is a national organisation of family law professionals (e.g. solicitors, mediators, financial advisors, divorce coaches etc.) whose members are committed to the constructive resolution of family disputes. The members follow a Code of Practice that promotes a non-confrontational approach to family problems. The members encourage solutions that consider the needs of the whole family – and in particular the best interests of children. Not having a Resolution member as your solicitor, means you have no guarantee that they will be working in the same productive, non -confrontational way in your case. The link for the website is: www.resolution.org.uk.

Don’t automatically go for someone who is local to where you live

There are many family law solicitors all over the country and you probably know of at least one, who is based in your local neighbourhood. I recommend choosing the solicitor because they “fit” with you and your divorce case, rather than they are easy to travel to. If finding the best solicitor for you means travelling 5-10miles for you to get to their offices, then that is better than simply choosing the solicitor in the local village. In practice, you will not have to meet with them very much at all during your case – perhaps only 2 or 3 times at most. After the first face to face meeting, most communication will be done on the telephone, by email and by letter. Therefore, you don’t have to worry too much if they are a little further afield, than your local neighbourhood.

Carry out further research on the solicitors you have in mind

When you have some names of solicitors, it’s important to do further research for yourself to find out more about them. I recommend looking them up on their firm website. They are likely to have a profile page, with their photo, experience and perhaps some client testimonials. It will give you more information about who they are and how the approach their cases. I would also recommend ringing 2/3 solicitors in different firms, to have a short chat with them. This will help you decide whether you think you would feel comfortable working with them and get an understanding of how their charges work. You can also arrange an initial meeting with one or more which can help further with your decision making (find out the costs for this in advance). See my blog How To Prepare For Your First Meeting With Your Solicitor for my top tips.

Please Note: You do not have to stick with the solicitor you first instruct to represent you. If you become dissatisfied with the quality of the service they are providing, you can change solicitors. I would not recommend this decision be taken lightly, to avoid any delay in the running of your case. However, if you become very unhappy, and having spoken to your solicitor about, nothing has improved you have the right to change representation. You get once chance to get your divorce settlement right for yourself. Don’t risk staying with a solicitor you don’t feel is doing their best to provide you with the best representation.

If you have found the tips in this blog useful then you’ll find lots more in my eBooks, which you can purchase and download today.

If you’d like to work with me 1:1, for help preparing for meetings with your solicitor/or support during meetings, please get in touch to find out how I can help.

Why I became a divorce consultant.