My best friend is currently undergoing divorce proceedings, and his decree nisi was announced on 24th Sept 2009, which means the earliest he can apply for a decree absolute is on the 6th November.
So far he has been representing himself, as he really can not afford a solicitor. He is the petitioner and instigated the divorce proceedings under the grounds of unreasonable behaviour. (he was married in jan 2005, and his wife basically treated him like a dog and abused his finances until he ran up a huge debt, and when he ran out of money she consequently left him in may 2008. He filed for divorce in June 09)
Yesterday he got a letter from her solicitor claiming that he had caused her stress because he was not compassionate when her brother died and wants ￡14,000. He wasn't even aware of her brother dying and would have certainly tried to contact her family if he had known.
He is now earning less than ￡14,000 a year, his current account is over ￡3000 overdrawn, he has a loan of ￡10,000 to pay off and his credit card debts all mount to another ￡10,000.
He has copies of all of his transactions, most of the debt went into running the matrimonial home, and financing her lifestyle to keep her happy. He is currently homeless as he godoes legal aid help divorcet evicted from his rented property and is living with a family friend.
How does he reply to such a demand of ￡14,000,he can't afford a solicitor and he really doesn't know what to do. How do we write a strong letter back to say she's a total AV儿劣** and he has no money to giver her because SHE'S run up his debt? How do we get legal aid?
Please help :(
Don't write back, go and speak to the CAB and ask for a free solicitor, some offices have solicitors come in a couple of times a week so you can see them, or go to a solcitor and ask about for a free legal aid appointment.........most of the meeting will be filling in the legal aid paperwork.
The fact is if this is what he has income wise and with the debts he can't afford to pay anything and he can be as uncaring as he wishes to be, ￡14,000 for this after a nisi..........something else is happening for a soliicitor to do this ( or something else has been told by ex wife for this to happen at this stage) and stop worrying.................even if they push it and it goes to court, on this information the court will throw it out, they will be divorced by that stage anyway so no case to answer.
Tell him to file a counterclaim that he's under stress too and does legal aid help divorcea million bucks should compensate him for that.
This is a try on and nothing to do with the Divorce. Her Solicitor would have to take him to Court, and I doubt that she would be legally aided for it. The Legal Aid board would look at the facts of the case before granting her any money. Its just a nonsense really. He could get advice from CAB but I think they would just tell him to ignore it. Every time her Solicitor sends him a letter she is being charged for it, so she will soon give up.
Contact Citizens Advice.
They should be the first point of contact.
Unfortunately most divorces are painful and bitter, and the man invariably ends up skint - but the ￡14 000 demand is completely out of order.
The solicitors will have a field day on that one.
From my bitter divorce experience I would have preferred not to have had legal representation... It cost me ￡15 000 and I lost everything, only to go bankrupt a year later.
The now ex wife got legal aid and won, but as I understand had to repay the legal aid.
Most of the costs were down to petty and repetetive arguments - so the solicitors won overall.
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