Changing Solicitor

I am with a solicitor that I really don''t get on with and I want to change to another.

My divorce petition has been put in, the AoS been sent by him and I have got to apply for the Nisi.

I eligible for legal aid. I have completed some forms but not had it approved yet because there were some bits I forgot to send. My circumstances have changed now anyway so I would have to be reassessed.

My questions are:

a) is it easy to change solicitor?
b) can the new solicitor apply for the nisi?
c) can the new solicitor complete a new legal aid application?

a) Yes. You see the new solicitor, they will get you to sign a form of authority to transfer the file and will send this to your old solicitor.
If you have been paying privately you may have to pay your bill before the solicitors release mot of your file.

b)Yes. They will need to complete a notice of acting to send to the court, to say that they are acting in place of your old solicitor, and the coutr will alter their records and send everythingfrom then on to the new solicitor.

c)Yes. However this depends a little on what level of legal aid you are claiming. If you are applyign for Legal Help, and did NOT sign a form for yourold solicitor, then you can be signed up with your new solicitor, but will have to pay your old solicitor for the work they did.

If you currently have Legal HElp and want to apply for full legal aid then your new solicitor can do this. However, becasue of the way that solicitors are paid for Legal Help work a new solicitor may be reluctant to take on your case and seek to trasfer the ELgal Help, as this means that they get paid very little.

f you already have full legal aid then the new solicitor would have to apply to transfer this from your old solicitor. You have to give reasons for why you want to change, and the LSC may refuse if they feel that the reasons are not good enough, or if you have not tried to resolve them with your original solicitor.

However, if you are dealing solely with a divorce, and if you have not yet been signed up for legal aid because you have not provided all of the necessary proofs, it seems likely that you will simply have to pay for the work your solicitor has already done, and then start fresh with a new solicitor.

Hi,

Thank you for your reply.

I have had help to actually submit the Petition to court, haven''t had to pay court fees, paid no money to the solicitor and haven''t paid to have bailiff service of the Petition.

I applied for legal aid to do the financial bits but this is what I forgot to send bits for. My application has been closed now apparently. My current solicitor is stopping doing legal aid cases. This is part of the reason for moving, apart from the fact that I don''t really like him!! I need a solicitor that I actually get on with. He is very "old school" and I think he has been known as a man''s solicitor.

I have got to apply for the Nisi. I presume that I should do this with my current solicitor because he has all the paperwork. I haven''t had anything from the court, ever, so I presume it has all gone to him only.

I could apply for the Nisi myself - it doesn''t seem too difficult, but I haven''t got paperwork so I''ll have to go back to the solicitor. I don''t think my stbx has defended at all - he really can''t defend his adultery!! But he has put the bit about having grounds to defend if he could be bothered.

I don''t mind doing some work myself but really need to get the financial stuff started.