Legal Aid

Hi,

Has anyone had experience of having to go to solicitors by legal aid-even though my husband is a high earner and obviously privately funded- and do you feel very undermined and a 'second cless citizen' like I do- even though the settlement will be high.

My solicitor- not even a partner- struggles to give me time of day. She even said to me today that she has hundreds of other clients. Promised to ring me Monday but didn't.

I'm wondering if getting a substantial loan from my parents would give a better outcome, even though the costs would be higher. That's if they would agree

Makes me very angry

Juicymoon,
I am a full fee paying client, and I get a similar level of care and attention from my solicitor. My STBX was breaking back into the FMH to take goods after already leaving and I was desperate for some advice, whilst the process was ongoing. Took nearly 48hrs to speak to my sol. Tad irritating to say the least, but I don't think that you are getting a particularly raw deal. Perhaps others have different stories.
Rather than blow a bundle of cash, give it a little more time. Or find a different firm of sols that do legal aid.

Best of luck

Mike

I would stick with legal aid. This is a 2 edged sword. I am a private client and I pay 170ph plus VAT. My stbx is a legal aid client and legal aid pays 45 ph. There is a lot of difference. I think what happens is that junior sols do the leg work in legal aid work. This is good and bad. When I was a junior engineer I was hungry for success and I tried real hard. This is why I would stick with legal aid. I can tell you that the sol that dealt with the non mol thing was a junior. She was on 45ph and I can tell U she was hungry. She wipped the floor with me. But its upto you. Lucky for me I have a good women sol and she is totaly absolutly evil. There is a waiting list for her I believe. Hope this makes sense as I been talking utter crap lately. C

Chris, if you've been talking utter crap lately you've not been doing it here, as far as I can see.

Sadie

i got turned down by legal aid, dont know why as i am working p/t and get WTC. sol said she would look into it. that was 8th oct, not heard anything, i rang the court to see about my divorce and it was sent out to the sol on the 25th, i rang them but sol was on leave again her stand in said she would find out what was going on but still as not rung back, i said to sol that i would borrow money of relatives to get things moving and all she said was use the money to help towards the debts, stbx is self funding and just laughs because i cant do anything cos i dont have the money i would have if she paid her half of the debt maybe thats why she is not paying any. yes you do get treated as a second class citizen, its a case of if you dont have the money you have to give in to the demands of the person who as whether its fair or not. just say to your sol 'pinch my nipples' and when they ask why you said that just say ' i like my nipples being pinched when i am getting shafted'

Hi, I have had a very good solicitor, who i pay, he got everything done, from
divorce to financial matters within 4 or 5 months, it was only that my partner
did not participate well, yes my solicitor was trying to make money, but did work well for me, i have had experience from friends on legal aid, they dont get
letters sent to them and are treated like second class citizens... Good paying
solicitors do not want a bad reputation as well. i hope this will be of
help, if you cant afford to pay, than go for legal aid, and keep patient, accept
that it will take time, at the end the way things are solved is in the same
way, dont go and get yourself in a debt. ruku