Debate on Wikivorce selling legal services

Just for being here a great big THANK YOU

Could I ask whether National Family Law Practice is the same firm as Family Law International?
www.familylawinternational.com/index.html
Is Wikivorce recommending that we use this firm of solicitors in preference to any other family law solicitor?

Maggie, I don't know what you on about. I've been on Wiki for a short period of time, and in that time I have had a great time and very good and useful advice on this site. This site has helped me at my worst moments whilst considering divorce. As for the Solicitors and Barristers, I give them alot of praise, bearing in mind they are on here for us. The advice and help that I have had from the solicitors here, have helped me in more ways than one.

This site and all it's solicitors and teams have been a life point for majority of us, I praise them for the work they are doing on this site, without them, most of us would not cope as well as we are doing at present. I have had very prompt, quick responses from Solicitors on this site and for that and the help of Wikivorce site they have all made the light at the end of my tunnel closer, whereas before I couldn't even imagine a light being there.

So a very big thank you and well done to the Wikivorce site, team and solicitors, there is loads of us out here that appreciate what you'se have done and for everything you's do for us. We all know that you'se are always there willing to help and advice and also encourage, so on behalf of us all that appreciate you and for what you'se are doing, a big huge thank you.

Keep up the good work, it's nice to know there is the support of many others on here.

Maggie, appreciate what we have here, these are geniune real people, here to help us, be grateful and thank your lucky stars or what ever, you have people like these and a site like this.

Good Luck Wikivorce, teams, solicitors and barristers. Great job to all of you

Maggie,

I cannot see a sell out but perhaps you can see further than me.

Thank you for putting your thoughts on the board. This is one of its functions, even if unintended at inception.

What I see here is a free and easy accessible forum where ordinary people help each other through goodwill.

Some of those ordinary people are also solicitors but most come here having no or little knowledge of the law.

Some make a decision to self-rep alone, others with ad-hoc help from here or from a solicitor.

In many cases people are dissatisfied with their unWiki solicitor's philosophy of dealing with the breakdown of a marriage and break-up of a family as if the divorce were a piece of cheese to be sold by the pound.

I say NO to cheese-mongering solicitors and YES to Wikivorce (Huzzah!)

Drat, I wasn't going to post anymore but as usual I think Maggie has a point. Many of us signed up for Wikivorce because it wasn't commercial and a place that we could share knowledge, experience and resources. On the back of this Wikivorce 'poached' from other forums and received free advertising. This is an example of how it was sold by Ian;

Lynne,

Thankyou very much for mentioning Wikivorce in your excellent blog. I was interested in your comments and thought I might clarify what Wikivorce is aiming to do. Let me start by saying that Wikivorce is not a replacement for solicitors. Wikivorce is a place you can learn, share and make friends. It is a community of people going through divorce (or recently divorced) who support each other during a very challenging stage in their lives. In fact I believe that Wikivorce can complement the work of solicitors by providing its members with emotional support, but also basic information on the divorce process. This should enable them to work more effectively with their solicitor, to achieve wherever possible an amicable, negotiated out of court settlement.

Divorce is a lonely place, and its not always easy to discuss it with friends or family. Do people want to share their experience of divorce? The resounding answer is yes! Our chat rooms are busy most evenings from 9pm til 2am; on average one new divorce blog is started every day, and we now have the busiest divorce forum in the UK. Anyone whose life has been impacted by divorce is welcome to join us (and that includes solicitors!)

11 June, 2007 20:35

www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3027891...=7772980192125326998

My concern is that Wikivorce will be tied to one firm whose involvement is for financial profit and valuable contributions from others will be lost. I believe there is no quick fix and the only way to modernise family law is to lobby with those sols and judges who want to see change and that isn't possible tied to one firm. There are already online companies that offer various online services promising exactly the same as Wikivorce Divorce Services and in my experience they are actually even worse than conventional services. To charge £30/50 pounds to provide forms and guidance which are freely available is a joke. For me modern divorce needs a holistic approach and should ideally include alternative dispute resolution.

Anyway I feel many Wikivorce members are vulnerable and could be blindly walking into something not in their interest. I for one am not willing to contribute further knowledge or information about resources which I've acquired over the years to the forum for others to make financial gain. It isn't the basis upon which I joined Wikivorce. I shall bite my lip hard, communicate by PM for the time being and see how it all turns out in the hope I have to eat my words.

Wiki : you and a legal team partnering up = marriage made in heaven ! May the cheer of thank yous drown out the dissent !!

I value everything about wikivorce - including the professional whistleblowers - it's a national treasure and I want to protect it ........ but I can't see this partnering with the National Family Law Practice as anything but a sell out.
If everyone believes this will be no threat to wikivorce and
all who post on her and will force better standards and maybe even better law I hope you're right and that my fears are groundless.