Response for Nicola
Posted By: Suzy Miller on 07/03/2025 at 14:26
Hello Nicola
Your solicitor appears to offer unbundled pay by the hour so that’s good. If you can think of a reason to use her (perhaps for turning your final mediated agreement into a Consent Order – though I have a potential less expensive option I can share when you get to that stage) – then it’s good to know that solicitor is there in the background should you need them. But you might not.
If you work with Henry or any specialised divorce financial planner (who does long term cashflow forecasting) and then with maybe a couple of options of how to split the finances, you use mediation to cut a deal, then job done. All that happens then is you take the summary of the agreement (Memorandum of Understanding) and get that turned into legal language as a Consent Order.
Hi Nicola, You can pay a legal person to act as a concierge service, but it's a very expensive way to do it, when you can equally get 1-1 support for way less - because most of what you need to do doesn't involve any legal advice. If you need that, then you have your lawyer available on an hourly basis. You can involve them as much or as litte as you like - but best to just use them when you actually need legal advice. Which may be little or not at all. If you 'instruct' a lawyer then they become the person your spouse needs to send info to. But that is very expensive and usually not necessary, if you only actually need a lawyer in the background to work on an hourly basis ad hoc (unbundled). Just check they are happy to work that way. You don't need to instruct' them, unless you need them to be a go-between but that will cost a lot of money. If you want more 1-1 support on just staying on track. and reducing the need for using a lawyer for things that are nothing to do with the law, you can join the Secret divorce Group combined with a monthly 1-1 zoom with me as a subscription via this link: <a href="https://startingovershow.thrivecart.com/subscription-strategy-session-uk-sdg/" target="_blank">https://startingovershow.thrivecart.com/subscription-strategy-session-uk-sdg/</a>
Suzy Miller
Thanks so much - I am filled with so much fear and doubt that I can do it without a legal person taking the lead.
Nicola