Solicitor Trying It On?

I am the respondent and adulterer. I agreed to pay half of my wife''s costs in relation to the divorce proceedings. They have already tried it on once by asking me to simply pay half of everything but we agreed that I would pay £551 if I did not defend the proceedings.

We have already been to mediation and I agreed to pay half of the costs of preparing the Consent Order, prepared by my wife''s solicitor.

I have now recieved a letter and draft consent order, asking me to pay half of their costs of £1700, ie £850 on top of the £551 I have already agreed to pay.

I have replied outlining that I do not agree to this and only agree to pay half of the actual costs of preparing the consent order (I no longer have a solicitor acting for me, which may be why they are asking for this).

Can anyone give some advice please on where I stand, if I have done right in standing my ground, how much a consent order should cost to prepare?

Thank you

Firstly, you shouldn''t have agreed to bear any of your wife''s costs incurred in relation to the financial side of things. The usual procedure is that each party bear their own costs.

Secondly, you have no control of the amount that is to be paid as you are not the client. If your wife thinks the charges are reasonable, you have agreed to indemnify her for half of those charges.

Finally, the exact wording of the agreement to pay costs is relevant. Did you actually say your would "pay half of the cost incurred in preparing the consent order" or was the language more ambiguous than this?

Charles

I agreed to pay half of the divorce costs up to a maximum of about £500 as this is what my solicitor (when I had one) stated was the normal course of events. I understood that as the adulterer it would otherwise be possible that a court order could mean that I would have to pay all of my wife''s costs.

I accept that I have no control over my wife''s bill but made it clear in mediation that I agreed only to pay half of the consent order procedure, which seems fair enough given that only one solicitor can draft it, not her entire bill.

The mediator may be at fault for not making that perfectly clear in their report.

What do you have in writing? That is what matters.

Wow, who''s side is your solicitor on?!!!!!

Divorce in this country in pretty much no fault- Even if you were the adulterer.

I was the adulterer in my divorce, I petitioned, and then she crossed.

We each paid our own costs

I petitioned on grounds of domestic violence and that he had left and taken up an inappropriate relationship with OW.

His solicitors wrote time and time again to my solicitors stating that they would only agree to the Petition if I agreed to pay all husbands costs and that he wouldn''t acknowledge service if I didn''t agree.

To this day they are probably puzzled as to how I got his Acknowledgement of Service into court and got it accepted by the court.

The way I did it was because my ex was being sneaky and trying to convince me that he was living in a friends house in the next village.

Obviously I knew different cause his girlfriend lived opposite me and I am not stupid as his works van was parked on the village high street most nights.

Thing was that I had the key to his van as it was part of my business at the time so when he used to leave all his papers (collected at his post address) in the van overnight all I had to do was go on night manouevres, copy all the correspondence and put it back.

My solicitor at the time said it was the ace in the hole when one day I turned up with the signed acknowledgement of service (wasn''t even aware of its importance at that time).

I can picture the shock ad outrage on their faces - how DARE SHE!!!

I did do a few other things after that which was when I decided that a career move into Private Investigation was not going to suit me - too much hanging around dressed in black late at night!

pcsparky wrote:

I agreed to pay half of the divorce costs up to a maximum of about £500 as this is what my solicitor (when I had one) stated was the normal course of events. I understood that as the adulterer it would otherwise be possible that a court order could mean that I would have to pay all of my wife''s costs.

I accept that I have no control over my wife''s bill but made it clear in mediation that I agreed only to pay half of the consent order procedure, which seems fair enough given that only one solicitor can draft it, not her entire bill.

The mediator may be at fault for not making that perfectly clear in their report.

So, you have agreed to pay two set of costs - half of the divorce and half of the consent order work? The consent order bit could be a few hundred pounds or a lot more depending upon the complexity of the order.

The report from the mediator is not binding as it a ''without prejudice'' document. If a party goes on to make an offer based on that report which is subsequently accepted, the settlement becomes binding. If the settlement offered is not what you agreed to, you do not have to accept it.

Charles