\"solicitors should outline possible outcomes\"

Law Soc. Ancillary Relief Protocol
1.1.44 At the end of the first meeting or at an early stage thereafter,solicitors should outline possible outcomes to clients in writing as far as this is practical on the information available. It is recognised that in cases where there has been little or no disclosure it will need to be a very broad outline, and this needs to be explained to clients. It is important that clients are not given
unrealistic expectations, either of what can be achieved or of the time a matter may take to resolve."

Are solicitors supposed to outline possible outcomes for Ancillary Relief in writing to the client?
If so - is that normal procedure/regular occurrence?
No sign of it in my case.

Nor mine maggie.

Verbally the sol went from stbx shd have very little we talked 80:20 ...then down to 70:30 .. to a few months later .. you'll be lucky to get 60:40 .. and finally steamrollering me into an offer in court at FDR that was just about 50:50 (and based on incorrect pension value and assumptions)- which stbx (thankfully) rejected.

Soon I will know what a judge really thinks .. and fingers crossed will be writing to my now ex solicitor to tell them how much bollox they were talking.

Hadenoughnow

Life's short and you're busy - but I think it's our civic duty to complain about bad service from solicitors and it's one way to get answers to those burning questions they otherwise ignore?

Agreed maggie .. and that is something that will happen as soon as FH is out of the way .. I have six months from "sacking" my solicitor to do it .. and I am sooo looking forward to that bit!

What makes me cross as well is that stbx's (legal aid) sols must have given him some very unrealistic expectations for him to be pursuing this to FH at such ludicrous expense. I have been told by our favourite (and much missed) divorce lawyer that if he been her client she would have tied him to a chair and beaten him about the head until he saw reason if he insisted on instructing her to behave as his sols have been doing. Mind you she also said she wd do the same to me if I was being ridiculous .

Trouble is I can complain about my former legal rep .. there is nothing much I can do about stbx's - except attempt to get the judge to agree they have behaved badly - litigation misconduct - and it is because of them (and him) that I am facing such a HUGE (heading for 30k) bill .

Hadenoughnow

I think it would be a great idea to complain in the tumbleweed interval- half way between disclosure and the hearing when solicitors traditionally go to sleep on the case - might be useful to complain then that they hadn't given you any written scenarios/outcomes?
Not sure if anyone's done it - might prove risky - but then what have you got to lose?

Maggie,

I guess they could say trust has broken down and stop repping you - so you have to get someone else to go through all the files ...

Or you could be labelled as Mrs/Mr Awkward and find your bills go up .. I complained about mine early on, got a reduction in the bill - but then the hourly rate was increased .. and so, it appears, the amount of useless but costly correspondence .

Or things could get really nasty and you could find yourselves blackballed by all the solicitors in the district ...

Hmmm.

Hadenoughnow