Amanda clearly takes the sensible and practical approach -I wish every lawyer did that - and explained the workings out to their client as clearly as she does.

One of the problems - and one of the reasons costs go up -is that the AR proceedings are kicked off often before the exact values of various assets are known .. plus there is a lack of clarity about how certain assets such as pensions are likely to be dealt with. Some say pound for pound, others look at 25% of CETV ... all depending on circumstances so it is an inexact science.

There is also a BIG lack of understanding among slients about how this all works - wiki is helping but ALL lawyers shd be duty bound to explain section 25 of the MCA. I did not discover this existed until I came here .. and by then my costs were some 12k and rising.

It would be good if AR proceedings - and the costs involved - could be put on hold while all financial info is gathered. A lot of expense was racked up in my case just trying to get these details from the other side .. and we still did not get some vital figures until after FDR! This is after all required by law and shd not require endless chasing by solicitors. Failure to comply shd have some real penalty attached. You cannot possibly advise or negotiate effectively without knowing what is in the assets pot. It needs to be agreed as early as possible.

A set of pension guidelines would also be helpful .. in my case 4 barristers and 3 solicitors did not predict the way the judge would deal with the pension at Final Hearing.

It still seems like too much of a lottery to me ... and a licence to print money from some lawyers who do not appear to want their clients to understand what is going on.

Hadenoughnow

hi had,
I agree with you that a lot of expences are incured through one solicitor writing and asking for things that should be forthcoming without any problem.In case of my x2b I will not be surprised if his legal bills are not in the twenties already and we have not even reach FDR yet,my solicitors receive correspondence form his at least 3 times a week ,2 or 3 letters at a time.he has had at least 10hrs of barrister's time already ,what I know of.He sacked one and now is sueing her.

Hi Had

I am very interested in your comment about section 25 - we set it out in our initial letter to clients on an AR file (just as we set out the welfare checklist on Children Act files) - I didnt actually realise that not all firms did that.

Maybe that is one small change that Wiki could suggest to Resolution....perhaps if we just make lots of little but effective suggestions for change we might actually get somewhere???


Amanda

Amanda thanks so much for that explanation.
Can we assume that at some point our solicitors sit down and do the sort of calculation Amanda has set out?
Why don't they sit down with us and go through that AR decision process with us so we all know how it's done - or will be done in our case ..... or was it just my solicitor [again] who didn't do/?couldn't do that?

Sorry...... I don't know what solicitors do - in my firm they get me to do it, and I will always try to have a con with the client as early as possible so they know what they are facing.

However, when I was at the independent bar I would receive lots of instuctions to advise on quantum, so some obviously send it out to counsel at an early stage so they can use it to negotiate, but the converse was that I would also turn up at too many FDRs and find the client didnt have a clue what was going on, which I thought very unfair, firstly because the added stress must have been enormous, but secondly that I would then have to use their negotiting and advice time going through the basics.

Amanda

How can we make suggestions for improvements to Resolution? - all the niggling stupid things that come up time and again on here - we all meet them - from badly worded questions on official forms - to the abysmal guidance notes on the official HMCS website
I get the distinct impression that those niggling little absurdities and obscurities are the solicitors' cash cows.
Otherwise why wouldn't they have sorted them out years ago?

Maggie be nice!!!!!!

Solicitors find the forms just as infuriating - we have to learn to use them as well! Government designs the court forms - not solicitors.

I will speak to Ian about setting about organising a list of what Wiki peeps are unhappy with and making those suggestions. I have to say, I have tried on a couple of occasions to ask in the forums, but so far the response has been very underwhelming....maybe you want to start a thread of niggles?????????

Amanda