Issue with solicitor advice

I know for a fact that he is trying to find every opportunity to get me into a court as he knows I cannot afford a solicitor.

You need to take a step back. The solicitor is acting on your wife''s instructions. You need to view the solicitor as though he IS your wife. The instructions come from her through the solicitor.

With that in mind, it is your wife who is being difficult.

The benefit of this is that you can negotiate with your wife through the solicitor.

Set out your counter proposals with succinct reasoning e.g.

The previously discussed pension share sought to offset your client''s pension fund against my pension funds thereby allowing me to retain a greater share of my pension funds in lieu of any claim I had on your client''s fund.

I maintain that this is the most cost-effective method of division and my calculations propose that I retain x% of my pension funds and your client can have a pension share for the remainder.

Please take your client''s instructions upon the contents of this letter.

The letter will have to be sent to your wife who can make her own judgment.

On a side note, have you obtained legal advice? As you contributed to your first pension prior to marriage it would be perfectly proper to exclude the pre-marital contributions.

A bit of tactical input now might facilitate settlement rather than allow the matter to go to court...

Charles

Thanks so much for your support Charles.
I do need to take a step back. I am just in the moment and completely fed up that we don''t seem to be reaching any agreement.

She states she wants her settlement from the property by end of October or it will need to go on the market - what she needs to understand therefore is that time is ticking and to achieve that, I need the Consent Order endorsed so I can apply for the mortgage and go through the process. It''s not a quick process for sure.

.Charles wrote:

On a side note, have you obtained legal advice? As you contributed to your first pension prior to marriage it would be perfectly proper to exclude the pre-marital contributions.

Charles

Hi Charles does this always apply to pensions? I seem to find loads of conflicting information about it and no clear answer. I have a closed final salary fund that I contributed to for 28 years, 15 of which were before we met, can I exclude 15/28ths from the pot?

Is this unique to pensions or does it apply to all assets?

It''s not that easy I''m afraid. You cannot use a shopping list of principles and apply these rigidly to your case. There is no ''paint by numbers'' solution.

What you can do is begin with the argument that your spouse is only entitled to 15/28ths as this will increase your bargaining power.

Lots of other issues are at work though and a good needs-based case will always trump a contributions case.

Charles