Ball park cost for divorce?

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onekeano

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A colleague who has been seperated for 7-8 years has just got the letter from former Mrs that she wants a divorce. They have 2 kids (17&18) and he moved out of the house but continued to pay mortgage and her car repayments and contribute towards kids costs. A few questions......

* on the basis he won't be contesting it and they had a seperation agreement going back year - what are the likely ball park legal costs?
* what happens to the assets (especially the house) is he entitled to a share in it now or when the kids hit 18 or some later stage?
* what happens assets such as SSIAs / shares procured after the official seperation

Any advice appreciated
Roy
 
Firstly, you say he won't be contesting it- by this I assume you mean the actual divorce, but will he be contesting aspects of the application- i.e if his estranged wife seeks the entire former family home, a share of his pension, any of his newly obtained assets etc will he contest that aspect? The cost of the divorce will depend very much on whether any aspect is contested or not, therefore until he gives definite instructions to a solicitor they cannot be estimated.

Secondly in relation to division of assets, this depends very much on the particular relative personal and financial situation of the couple, and therefore no one will be able to advise in this type of forum ( in my opinion).
 
The terms of the separation agreement/Judicial Separation should have included all the settlement issues; if it did and both parties are happy with those terms then a divorce will cost c. €7.50 - this is the cost of the pre-printed forms available from the Govt Stationery office. The forms are lodged at the District Court and you will notified of the date of the hearing; said hearing takes all of 10 mins and legal representation is not required.

Once you have been separated for at least 4 of the last 5 years, you can't 'contest' a divorce; you can however ask for the settlement terms to be re-visited if you feel the terms were unfair or unbalanced.
 
The District Court has no jurisdiction in Divorce cases.

In this matter, it does sound as if there are substantial unresolved issues between the parties. We don't yet have a clear ruling from the courts as to whether a Judicial Separation or Separation Agreement done on the basis of "full and final" settlement would stand up. In theory, any party to a Separation can seek more of everything when Divorce comes round.

So the best advice here is to seek a consultation with a recommended Solicitor who specialises in family law to get a clear view based on the particular circumstances of what might happen.

mf
 
Thanks folks for the feedback - in fact my colleague has spoken with his solicitor who has indicated that to could cost 7-8000! Sounds crazy to me and so I'll keep my nose clean and stick with Mrs Roy.

Does this sound exhorbitant?

Roy
 
My sister was quoted €10K upwards for a divorce with the solicitor claiming that existing agreements made on assets/debts etc. during the judicial separation stage (over a decade ago) would be back on the table for renegotiation which didn't seem right to her/me.
 
"existing agreements made on assets/debts etc. during the judicial separation stage (over a decade ago) would be back on the table for renegotiation which didn't seem right to her/me."

Ouch! that sounds a tad unfair. Surely the agreements are based on what the parties had accumulated when they were together or is this the Ray Parlour scenario coming into effect over here :)

Either way €10k+ sounds like a rip off - surely make sense for both parties to do everything possible to avoid legals if the combined cost is >€20k.

Roy
 
Not sure about the Ray Parlour case but in this case the solicitor claimed that the fact that she took on joint debts alone and eventually cleared them and the fact that she wanted to protect her existing assets (house that she bought herself after debts were cleared, pension etc.) would be immaterial and everything would be back on the table. This didn't sound right to her and the cost mentioned seemed excessive. On the other hand she has not shopped around further just yet but would like to finally cut all ties sooner rather than later.
 
ClubMan said:
Not sure about the Ray Parlour case but in this case the solicitor claimed that the fact that she took on joint debts alone and eventually cleared them and the fact that she wanted to protect her existing assets (house that she bought herself after debts were cleared, pension etc.) would be immaterial and everything would be back on the table. This didn't sound right to her and the cost mentioned seemed excessive. On the other hand she has not shopped around further just yet but would like to finally cut all ties sooner rather than later.
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Sounds you sister might have had more to lose than my buddy, I'd say he probably (almost certainly!) has less assets now than he had at the time of seperation - hence his shock at the 7-8k potential bill! The only possible thing could be that he participates in the old SSIA but no pension and certainly no property.......(not sure if the wife has done much better). Sounds like the only winners will be the legal guys.

Roy
 
If financial issues can be decided between the couple then any divorce would cost substantially less.
 
In my sister's case an amicable settlement was/is never on the cards unfortunately. It's a long story... :(
 
Unfortunately in family law, things are rarely clearcut. Does your sister herself feel that if she starts divorce proceedings that her estranged spouse will seek part of her new assets? If not, she could test the waters with him, point out that what is called an uncontested divorce will cost a lot less ( indeed would cost him nothing at all) and see what his attitude is. In an uncontested divorce basically your sister would be serving papers on her ex and he would not reply and she would obtain a divorce by default of appearance by her ex. This would have a low cost. Perhaps she could explore that avenue and if it looks as if he will agree, she could go for it.
 
Yes - that is her concern especially based on what the solicitor said. She tried seeking advice at her Citizen Information Centre but she said that they were useless. Like myself she's an avid OASIS user :) and is generally clued in with financial and legal issues. However she would like to finalise things in this context especially to protect her assets and the children (whom she raised and with whom the father has had little regular contact through his own doing). The chances of him agreeing to a settlement proposed by her, no matter how beneficial to all parties in the long run, are slim to none I'm afraid. Anyway, apologies for hogging the thread.
 
Goes to show you what a rip off the Irish Legal system can be. I got divorced from the first mrs bond in the USA for only $500 all in. It was a quick and painless procedure all done by mail, only one 10 min appearance needed by myself and hey presto divorced and free to get on with life.
 
I can't say that the €10K ball-park figure quoted to my sister is a rip-off because (a) I have no idea whether or not the work involved would justify that cost and (b) she has not shopped around any more than that single estimate for comparative figures.
 
There is no general rip-off prevalent in the Irish Family Law system. There is a problem in relation to fees, which is that it is almost impossible at the outset to know how much work will be involved. The courts themselves (though this comment was largely addressed at barristers) have made it clear that the costs should not be linked in a proportional way to assets, but should follow the volume of work done. All things being equal, an "ample resources" case will, of course, still run up higher costs than a case between two relatively poor people.

The only way that I do family law (and I do very little of it) is on the basis of an hourly charge. Under this system, it is possible for a divorce to cost much less than €1,000.00, but only in very happy circumstances (no kids, no maintenance, no property adjustments to be made, and ideally with the other side keen to get it through, so that they issue the proceedings, while I simply vive advice and then go to court and consent to the order being made). As Vanilla says, it is absolutely impossible to give a "ball park" figure in any meaningful way, because each case is different.

As regards:
"the solicitor claiming that existing agreements made on assets/debts etc. during the judicial separation stage (over a decade ago) would be back on the table for renegotiation which didn't seem right to her/me."
I can confirm that this is in fact the law. There is no such thing as a "clean break" divorce in Ireland. There was a case which was reported in the papers as being the first "clean break" divorce case in Ireland, but in fact it was not (the court did go so far as to say that it expected not to hear from either side again, but that was as far as one can go in Ireland); The courts can always re-visit the situation in light of changed circumstances.

Importantly, it is not necessary that the original settlement was "unfair or unbalanced". A change in circumstances after the settlement can be taken into account by the courts.
 
MOB said:
As regards:
"the solicitor claiming that existing agreements made on assets/debts etc. during the judicial separation stage (over a decade ago) would be back on the table for renegotiation which didn't seem right to her/me."
I can confirm that this is in fact the law. There is no such thing as a "clean break" divorce in Ireland. There was a case which was reported in the papers as being the first "clean break" divorce case in Ireland, but in fact it was not (the court did go so far as to say that it expected not to hear from either side again, but that was as far as one can go in Ireland); The courts can always re-visit the situation in light of changed circumstances.

Importantly, it is not necessary that the original settlement was "unfair or unbalanced". A change in circumstances after the settlement can be taken into account by the courts.
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Thanks for that info MOB - very useful to know.
 
Hi Guys,

I am just out of the judicial separation process and my legal bill was €19k. I felt for certain that my legal guys let me down, and although they dont specialise in Family Law, the whole process was a shambles.

We settled just before the case and bottom line is that I gave a huge cash settlement to my Ex and I took out three mortgages for each of the properties we had 'jointly' ( all she did was sign her name !!).

Now in two years I have to apply for a divorce and I am hoping that she does not come after me for half of my business and another half of my properties ( which I am borrowed up to the hilt on).

As we have no kids, and I have a full and final settlement from the circuit court, surely there is no chance she can take any of my assets ! I was taken to the cleaners once - cant do it again...... I am going to do the divorce myself with no legal people - I am done with them.

I hear she is trying for a baby with the fella she ran off on me with - there is no way I will be financing that little B...... ( sorry ).

Can anyone tell me when this country is going to adapt some form of equity among separating couple, as everyone seems to be hanging in limbo for four / five years with the innocent person always getting fleeced !

PS: I wish all my mates would have a wip round to finance my legal bill .... unlike a guy we all know and love ! lol

Bob
 
The District Court has no jurisdiction in Divorce cases.
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The above statement is incorrect, reference:

[broken link removed]

"Family Law
The District Court has a wide jurisdiction in the family law area. Proceedings are not heard in open court and are as informal as is practicable"
 
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