Repayment of Legal Aid

[Win2Kuser]

Hi, sorry to jump in on someones thread.

 

I have a query regarding the final settlement from my divorce.

 

Basically, my ex wife filed in Jan 2009, I got a solicitor and the fun started!

 

We had to go through the usual mediation procedures which my ex backed out of.

 

Decree-nisi was granted in October 2009, but my ex refused to absolute until the financial matters had been sorted.

 

We had a house which was sold last year leaving £10,600 that is currently still being held by the estate agents solicitors. This whole time the argument has been over how much of a split we each got. I wanted 50%, she however wanted all of it! (greedy cow, but that's another story). Anyway, 4 months ago, she finally settled for a 65/35 split in her favour.

 

At the same time as this, there are two debts that have to be repaid from the equity, I managed to strike up a deal with both to reduce the final repayment by 1/3rd. A consent order was filed and agreed/signed in court, and now finally, the debts are being paid off, and I was hoping that I might actually got something out of the whole thing. The debts come to 5,270 which leaves around £5,330 of which I was thinking I'd get 35% or around £1860. I could really do with it too, cars on it's last legs, and money is really tight.

 

However, I had a phone call from my solicitor earlier who said that the money would have to be paid to them so that they could sort out the legal aid, and she was not sure I would get any!

 

This would be a real kick in the teeth for me, I was under the impression that legal aid only has to be paid back if the case went to court, but as we agreed out of court (albeit through solicitors), I would be okay. The solicitors were only used to start with to sort out the divorce.

 

Does anyone know if I would have to pay it back?

 

Looking on a couple of forums, one says that I get back anything left once the solicitor has paid the LCS, another one says that I keep the first £2500 and anything over that is used to pay the bill.

 

TIA.

[cerberusalert]

Post moved and new thread created.

[Win2Kuser]

Thanks cerberusalert, might explain why I couldn't find the thread

 

I should add to that, a few weeks ago, my solicitor said to me that she didn't think I'd have to pay anything back, and at the same time, she knew that I was striking up deals with the DCA's. One of the deal ends in a few days, and I've bombarded her with loads of emails/phone calls etc to gee them up so that payment would be made on time. Surely, if she knew I wouldn't get any money, she'd have told me not to both trying to reduce the debt. I've lost so much sleep over the last week or so worrying about getting the settlement plan paid etc.

 

It would really put me down if I got nothing. The house was joint, but I paid all the bills while my ex say on her huge @ss all day, I also put 60k into the house as it was near derelict when we bought it. On top of that, she refuses to let me see my kids, and took the entire contents of the house after changing the locks and refusing me access. Part of the solicitor negotiations were trying to get back some of my things, I gave up with that in the end as she just wouldn't budge. ho hum.....

 

[cerberusalert]

Thanks cerberusalert, might explain why I couldn't find the thread

 

You should have been able to find it, I sent you a private message with the link when I moved it.

[Win2Kuser]

Yeah, sorry, I didn't get any notifications... until I checked my emails, and there it was

[Win2Kuser]

Anyone? Could really use some info... Thanks