Form A

My ex to be has filed Form A without attempting to make an offer, obviously I'm forced to go to court and let the court decide about the settlement which I'm ok with BUT do i have the right to ask him to pay for the barrister fees on the day? at the moment I can't afford to pay a barrister and I can't get legal aid because of the equity in the property and yet no cash available to pay for my bills therefore had to lower my standard of living for both my young children (9, 5 years old) to get through this tough phase.

Hi,
First the equity in the property doesn't count against you for legal aid as any asset in dispute isn't included in the legal aid calculation, and in divorce everything is in dispute. However, its a loan not a grant so after the outcome you'd need to repay the money anyway.

Just because he's filed a form A doesn't mean you can't agree before hand and not go to court; the the odds are you will end up in court.

Finally, form E is a big for to fill in and can take weeks to collect together all the info for it. Your solicitor can do it @ £200/hr or you can. Easy choice eh. Download the word doc version of form e from this site and start thinking about what you need and where to get it for this form. I think the winners are those who go to court with for E really well completed with nothing missed of, and with a good idea of what should be on your stbx's form e

Thank you for your help.

Form E already fully completed and exchanged. both parties Questionnaire been submitted too with my responses already supplied. I'm currently putting together statments of issues and thinking about what sort of financial settlement I should have and why. Also what I'm willing to accept.

You can apply for maintenance pending suit and ask for your sbx to pay towards your solicitors/barrister fees.

Statement of issues should have been sent to court with questionnaire before the First Appointment.

Thank you. Will investigate it.