Picking Up the Pieces After WAW Goes Again #3

[smilie]

What a ride this life is turning out to be ..... in way of an update after receiving my lawyer huge bill on Friday...

Spoke to my lawyer this morning about fees, work, costs going forward, etc. She say that there was a lot of work to go in to preparing the court papers, which wouldn't have needed to be done if my stbxw would have agreed to pay maintenance between us. She didn't and therefore the court had to be petitioned and this incurred costs. The consists for this part of the process can be up to �5,000 ($6,900) and a claim has also been put in to recover the costs from the stbx as these would have never have been incurred if she had been prepared to come to an agreement, which is also likely to be accepted due to her conduct.

She told me that a divorce can cost between �5,000 - �25,0000 ($6,900 - $35,000), depending on how difficult the other party wants to be - at the moment, very it would appear. But seeing as I filed for adultery, initial costs have to be paid by me. Also I am led to believe that the person who files is seen as more favourable by the court? Other companies have told me this also.

The court still hasn't listed my case to be heard and they have been chased this morning. My lawyer has told me how to reduce costs by saving all the information I find out and send it all in one email, rather than as and when I have information.

She thinks that I should be successful in court with my claim, but she cannot guarantee it (of course) and that I should be good going forward for longer term claim also. She also recommended looking for places to live either in the local area (can't do this as I don't want to be around stbxw), or an area with similar house prices to here, otherwise it could affect my claim with a property rented in a cheaper area, which was my plan, if I was to change area later then the claim wouldn't be adjusted for a higher rent - so that's my focus, while keeping the house I found on the go just in case - referencing checks next.

She didn't charge me for the phone call, but I've still got to pay the bill, but at least I know that it should be able to be recovered. We discussed a couple of areas that will keep costs lower.

I am hoping that if I get maintenance agreed, then later down the line I can always put forward an offer for the stbxw not to have claim on anything (my pensions) and I'll stop claiming maintenance, depending on how things go. Always handy to have that leverage if I need to. So now it's about building evidence for the courts for the next stage. I certainly didn't expect this to get this bad though and thought that the stbxw would have been agreeable ... she seems to have changed, significantly.

I mentioned that I was anxious having received her invoice after close of business on a Friday and that I was unable to speak with her and it didn't help my situation. She was understanding and said that she would look into the procedures, as it's not a good thing to do. She also said that they were one of the cheaper law firms in the area due to the fact that they don't charge for everything. I saw that also, when one of the other firms recommended taking out a loan or re-mortgaging the house to pay for the cost of divorce.

So we'll see what happens next. I'm also looking to see if I can find any groups a bit further from here and work a bit more on my recently neglected GAL.