Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Selfrepresenting - should I give it a try?

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Selfrepresenting - should I give it a try?

    Hi guys,

    I had dealt with the Legal aid lawyers and the expensive ones too in last 4 years. The divorce is done, the property has been devided, the custody issue more or less settled. What's left is going to court 2-3 times a year when my ex decides that his income has reduced and applies for the court order variation in regards to the child maintenance. It seems that this kind of routine will be there for me for another 10 years at least.

    I counted I spent $6000 in legal fees last year covering my lawyers work on the various correspondence and court order variations and received $4000 from the ex in child maintenance payments. Meaning whatever I received from the ex I gave to my lawyer plus 1/3 of this sum. It makes me feel quite stupid.

    I'm charged $40 for each email from the legal secretary, even if it's only "we received your email, thank you."

    My ex runs to his lawyer every time he had a bad dream about me and spend his waking hours looking for reasons to go to court.

    I receive numerous letters from my lawyer reporting details of communication with my ex's lawyer. $40 to $80 per each letter. Usually, it doesn't result in anything.

    I prepare all the financial calculations for my lawyer myself because I don't trust the lawyer's assistant, who had made mistakes in the past. I do my own research on the matters involved and submit the papers to the lawyer who then charges me for "research and review done".

    I'm a quick learner and well organized. Do you think it would be possible to me to take over my own legal affairs and selfrepresent myself in future?

    Don't get me wrong - I fully understand the importance of having a good lawyer at the time of divorce, custody an property division. I totally appreciate the valuable service they provide to the public.

    But spending so much money on petty post-divorce stuff when this money could be better spent on my child makes me mad!

  • #2
    Sounds like you've got a good handle on it. Has he actually been getting anything he's taken you to court for?

    Remember that if your do self-rep then you have duty counsel for advice.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by billiechic View Post
      Remember that if your do self-rep then you have duty counsel for advice.
      Not necessarily. If your household income exceeds the legal aid limit, you will not qualify for Duty Counsel.

      At my last Case Conference neither I nor my ex were permitted advice.

      Comment


      • #4
        Wow, really. I know I exceed the limit and they have never refused me.

        Comment


        • #5
          If you have most of the issues settled you could definatly give it a go yourself. I think it gets just miore costly going from lawyer to lawyer.

          I have never given my lawyer *go wild*. Some things you can do to keep expenses to a minimum is not have your lawyer accept service. Your ex's lawyer can send all those email/documents to you and than YOU get to decide what warrants your lawyers review. I also didn't have my lawyer send letter after letter that I knew was going no where very fast.

          For what its worth...putting an idea out there for you to consider..My husband writes all my letters and court documents. He is not as emotional and able to keep the points concise, etc. We normally get my lawyer admin to put the documents on her letterhead and send it. My lawyer even offered my husband a job, however it would be quite a paycut for him to move into an admin role - LOL..Maybe you could have someone put all the points together for you, I tend to be too wordy..

          My lawyers admin made a costly mistake in her billing once..I owed about 1500 dollars more than what was on the bill..I alerted her to the mistake and she still couldn't get the numbers correct. Anyhow I let them figure it out and also informed that I wasn't going to pay for 3hrs of time for them to get their act together. My lawyer apologized and apologized. I always receieved a monthly bill detailing my account and I'm not charged per email but it is broken down to the 10min interval rate.

          Good Luck with your decision. I would self rep but we have mental health issues so I prefer to use a lawyer.

          mominont

          Comment


          • #6
            Thank you for your advice.

            BILLIECHIC and REPRESENTINGSELF mentioned that the Duty Counsel considers the household income in their decision whether to provide the free advice to the self-representing person. Did you have to submit financial documents proving that your household income doesn't exceed the legal aid limit?

            As to the question if my ex actually been getting anything he's taken me to court for, yes for 50% of it. Usually, it's the decreasing the amount of child support due to his income change, to which I would reasonably agree without going to court, but because the Maintenance Enforcement in our province doesn't recalculate the child support amounts and wants a court order variation, we have to go to court to obtain the new order.

            MOMINONT pointed out that being emotional about the case can create complications to self-representing. What other problems could there possibly be?

            Comment


            • #7
              I was honest with duty cousel about my income and that was all they needed. I have seen duty counsel probably 4 times now and never been refused

              Comment

              Our Divorce Forums
              Forums dedicated to helping people all across Canada get through the separation and divorce process, with discussions about legal issues, parenting issues, financial issues and more.
              Working...
              X