Is my solicitors advice correct?

Hi, i wonder if anyone out there could offer me some advice as my solicitor is confusing me.

I bought a property in July 03, with a deposit of £10K of my own savings, and £30k from a loan from my father.
I took a mortgage for £35K.
2 months later i started dating my ex.
In July 04 my grandfather gave me a gift of £10k to help me reduce my mortgage.
During this period i paid off nearly £6K of the mortgage each month and added special contributions.
In Sept 04 my ex moved in with her child to my property.
She contributed nothing to the household bills. She was never named on the mortgage.
In Feb 06 we married and were seperated 4 months later, July 06.

At the time i gave her £1500 to help her move home, and all of the furniture.

The property was sold and i made £64K of which i can prove that £56K was prior to my ex moving in.

Our Decree Nisi came through in Dec 07. Her child has not been named as a child of the family.

My solicitor has always gone down the line that only equity made during the co-habition and marriage will be taken into account.

This means there is only £7k left in equity.

I made a offer of £2,500 which with the other things totals £5k to my ex.

My solicitor is now advising that i should offer at least £5k if not £12K as the district judge will take the whole sum into account not just the equity. her wording was as follows:

"... rather than risking some division of a District Judge, who may decide to give her a third of the sale proceeds.

At the end of the day, the Court can make whatever Order a District Judge deems as fair. Their decision regarding distribution is not going to be limited to the £7k, it will be ­base­d on the entire net proceeds of sale."

Please can some one advise me if this is correct. As the marriage and co-habition was so small (20 months) and with no contirbution from her, can they really give her £20k.
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Here you come across one of the great difficulties in English divorce law - namely, its almost maddening flexibility.

The theory is this : a district judge must take into account a number of factors which are set out in s 25 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. You can probably find them on the wikivorce divorce guide.

Let's have a look at some of them :
The parties' financial resources ;
The financial needs obligations and responsibilities of both parties ( this would clearly include the child )
The age of each party and duration of the marriage
Any contributions which either of the parties has made

This is list is not exhaustive but these are the most common ones.

The problem is that it's for the judge to decide which
of these factors (s)he is going to take into account and what weight to attach to each of them. This is why it is difficult even for professionals to give accurate
forecasts of the likely outcome of a case. For example, in the well known case of McFarlane v McFarlane, the case went up from a district judge to the House of Lords, and there were three different outcomes on the same facts.

So I would say you have to try and balance, on the one hand, what you might expect to get if the matter went to Court, and on the other, how much it might all cost.
It isn't worth spending £10,000 arguing over £5000, for example.

I don't think it's a bad idea to go to a local aolicitor who appears regularly before the DJ who might try your case, because (s)he will know the way the DJ thinks.

Mike 100468

Is a sols advice correct? Given the power of a dj, that q is unanswerable.

I read your story and you have my deepest sympathy my friend. Although my circumstances are not the same as yours there are aspects that are similar in some areas. I have no advice to offer you other than what I have had to do and that was I fought for what I thought was right.

I believe there are many women who count on the man giving up the fight because of the financial hardships and pain involved.

In a right and decent world your ex wife should only get what she contributed to and in your case that seems very little. Speaking for myself I will never enter into another relationship with another woman without legal protection through pre nups. Im afraid its a sad fact of modern life that this is now neccessary.

Best of luck for the future.

Many thanks for everybody's help and support. All i can now do is await the responce for my ex's solicitor in regards to my £2500 offer and take it from there. I am currently considering self repping so will be reading these boards for hints and tips.