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Trust your Gut instincts and Research in Family Law

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  • Trust your Gut instincts and Research in Family Law

    It isn't easy self representing...been there and in the end my plate was full with my ex and assessing two lawyers.

    I was married to a narcissistic blah blah blah, and it is not easy divorcing one of those, but you can and will.

    I am finally at the end of my divorce 5 years of no support payments and no finality not even agreement in an NFP, it was hell!!

    I was fortunate, I made an email, sent it out to several lawyers, after researching their years of service as lawyers, and also checked out their community involvement, interests, case law and their replies did I chose a lawyer.

    This ongoing crap for four years was over in two weeks and one court visit. Only one item is left and should be resolved in the next 6 months.

    I assessed my previous lawyers and won, I knew my case better than they did, and did not allow their games or invoiced fees for services which were not rendered to be allowed. I mean, we go to a mechanic and ask for an oil change - and they only change the air filter, most of us would demand our money back or for them to perform a proper oil change.

    We are all human on this earth, we all make mistakes however, after years of getting no where and lawyer fees which did not make results, this does not constitute fees for them. They have the LLB and know how to make this system work but some of them choose to prolong the process for financial gain and added stress on their clients. Its just WRONG.

    Good luck to those who are trying to battle this self representation but it takes years to gain the respect in the courts and may your health be able to sustain the stress.

    Divorce sucks, and if if knew then what I know now, marriage would of never been considered!!! The next time I require a lawyer for legal services I will be 48 hours dead, and I wont be paying the fees!!!

  • #2
    What province/city are you in, and how did you manage to procure a lawyer and have a court date within two weeks ?

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    • #3
      Originally posted by May_May View Post
      What province/city are you in, and how did you manage to procure a lawyer and have a court date within two weeks ?
      The court date was set prior to retaining the lawyer. Like I said I knew my case, there wasn't much the lawyer had to do, other than read several well kept spreadsheets and provide proof of everything including court documents. It was done!!!

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      • #4
        How many lawyers did you have assessed? And in each instance, you were successful and did not have to pay any/part of the bill you received?

        Were you reimbursed for your filing fees?

        *Definitely not easy to self rep, and for the most part not recommended.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by hadenough View Post
          How many lawyers did you have assessed? And in each instance, you were successful and did not have to pay any/part of the bill you received?

          Were you reimbursed for your filing fees?

          *Definitely not easy to self rep, and for the most part not recommended.

          I assessed two law firms I was reimbursed 3500 from one firm and over 10,000 from the other.

          Honestly, all I wanted was to be represented. However when the loss of monies owed to me equated to more than their fees in addition to several substantive issues that were not handled by the lawyers while they had carriage of my file, I had grounds for assessing their fees.

          In all accounts the law firms did not want it to heard by the Assessment Officer and were finalized out of court.
          Last edited by Looking4Answers; 05-16-2012, 11:12 PM.

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          • #6
            I see. So you had already put the money out - retainers etc. I had a former lawyer's bill assessed. It was not a Family Law related matter. I had received the invoice - just under $8000. Had THAT assessed and did not have to pay it. Also (same lawyer/same assessment) did not have to pay an additional $2000 of a previous invoice from the lawyer. All in all - 10k - I guess I did pretty well. The lawyer came unprepared to the assessment (which lasted all day) and virtually had nothing to back up that the invoiced services were rendered. It was a good feeling but not something I want to have to do again.

            I was very well prepared though, with extra copies of all my documents.

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