Legal Expenses

Hi am needing some advise in regard to the legal expenses and who pays what.

My partner's wife who has petioned for a divorce on the grounds that they have been seperated for over two years. In the divorce it is stated that she wants my partner to pay for her expenses. Can he be expected to pay for both solicitor bills.

Thanks:dry:

The expenses that you mention your partners wife is asking him to pay is just the court fees for the petition process which is a few hundred pounds. It speeds things along if he accepts to pay this.

This is entirely seperate to the costs of solicitor fees to process ancillary relief proceedings. These are the costs that can runs into many (even tens) of thousands of pounds. Since 6th April 2006 the rule on these costs is that (in simple terms) each side pays their own costs.

So to keep costs down the main thing is to keep the solicitor bills down and that means avoiding excessive conflict, doing as much of the basic leg work yourself, and using a solicitor for those elements you cannot easily do (like drafting the Consent Order).