[Solved] Offer before FH

My solicitor isn't great, so far I've spent around £8k (no idea how I've found that money, it's bonkers) and achieved nothing at all.

The barrister suggested to me for the FH is £3200 + vat for 1 day and £1750 + vat for day 2 (listed as 2 days). He's very experienced etc, how much is direct access?

The mortgage I'm not so bothered about but it's the nominal I am. Ideally I want to know if in Guildford there's 50% or higher chance of her getting nominal at the final hearing and god forbid straight up spousal! Everything I've read says that varying the order is very rare, but how rare? Who else on here has a nominal sm in place and it hasn't bitten them? Is there anything I can do to say I'll accept the nominal but make it less sever?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm so stressed at this point on so many levels, court is set for 11-12 July. I don't know what I'd do if I say 'no' to her now and then we go to court and the outcome for me is worse than what we have now.

Depends on the seniority of the barrister and how complex Your case is .. my divorce took years so the costs rack up pronto . By way of comparison i found a direct access barrister for less than a grand to rep me at my fdrha . With solicitors you pay them to email the barrister . You can filter on the d a portal for someone that’s say got 4 years experience . They’ll be better value than someone older ...it’s prob rare because of the cost to vary .

Therein lays the problem . Nothing is formulaic so you don’t know what a judge will decide just what is roughly likely .

Anyone got an idea as to what is roughly likely though? how likely is she to get nominal and how likely do nominals get varied?

I asked my solicitor and he just quoted a lot of internet forum notes that I've already read today...£22 well spent.

blindsided, try search on direct access portal for cheaper barristers.

you mentioned that your ex is on good salary. based on that, sounds like they trying to scam you lol. read this:

What is spousal maintenance?

This is a regular payment made by a former husband, wife or civil partner to their ex-partner.

It’s only paid where one partner can’t support themselves financially without it.

The amount you receive would depend on:

How much you need to live on;
How much income you already have; and
How much you could potentially earn in the future

If the marriage or civil partnership is short (typically, less than five years), it might not be paid at all or only for a short period through what’s called a ‘term order’.

But where a couple has been together for a long time, or where an ex-partner is unable to work, it can be paid for life.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/clean-break-or-spousal-maintenance-after-divorce-or-dissolution

I agree .spousal is supposed to be paid until the ex can be able to support themselves . If yours is on a good salary already then you can argue you shouldn’t pay it

I think there is a bit of confusion, I'm not being asked to pay spousal, I'm being asked to accept a nominal spousal order...which means I pay £1 a year but the door is left open to her as a back stop incase she can't support herself at some future point.

I spoke to another divorcee tonight, he's had a TERRIBLE divorce, my god... I mentioned to him about nominal spousal and he just said that it's hard to find a divorce (maybe round Guildford area?) now that doesn't have it in place, he has it in his.

Got my draft consent order through and the only real point that I don't get is this one.

Is this normal looking? Should I be worried?

My thought is that this is more to protect the ex from me going to the cms after 12 months?

But doesn't the cms overrule a consent order anyway?

The varying of nominal maintenance upwards I don't quit get... if I'm paying £766 let's say and CMS says £650, then would I just be paying the £650? Or would it mean that £750 - £650 = £100 nominal, so the ex will never get less than £750.

That makes me think more that it's to protect her from me going to the CMS and her getting less than £750?

Any genius care to explain 🙁

hi,

looks like they made it water-tight. so if you went to CMS and your £100 better off with them, then you have to pay £100 spousal maintenance. thats what im gathering from reading that excerpt.

It protects your ex and she gets whatever payment works out more .
Re the payment being index linked .
My ex wanted that too I said no way . What I did instead was say that I’d increase the monthly payments by the same % as any increase in my salary , obv after tax . If your ex has good earning capacity make sure you try to get a time limit for spousal to stop and get her back to work

That's the conclusion I've come to, perhaps she's worried I'll go to CMS after 12 months and reduce the payment (I won't as I like keeping earnings private). If at some future point I'm at say 800 with cpi and decide it's too much, I will just go to cms and it'll then drop back to 750 (if cms is less than 750)...seems to only ensure she never gets less than 750 but that I could in theory hold it at 750 for the term.

If I go cms and cms goes over 750 though, I'd expect the varied nominal to drop back to £1!! Not worded in there though.

She's left it late as we're in court on the 11th of July to no doubt pressure me into just signing.

Is it so bad?

Also make sure spousal support stops if she marries (I think it does anyway) or lives with someone.