Does her refusal of mediation affect his legal aid

Hi,

My partner has been separated from his wife for a year. The very (very!) short version, taking out all emotional issues, is that he is being denied contact with his three children and is stuck keeping a joint bank account afloat. Whilst she no longer pays into the account at all, she continues to spend from it. He is paying every penny of his wages into the account, just so that they don't accrue any charges. This includes the mortgage and all of the household bills of the matrimonial home that she lives in with the children, numerous store cards of hers, her mobile bill and all of the mobile bills of the children, the sky tv and internet bills etc.

She refuses point blank to talk about beginning to untangle their finances. His bank has been incredibly unhelpful when it comes to the joint bank account and he feels though he can do nothing to resolve the issue. Contacting the utility companies etc has proved useless, as in order to cancel the direct debits attached to the joint bank account, they need another bank account to set up the new payments from, and of course, his estranged wife refuses to give these details.

He has been to the solicitors three times since November. He is entitled to legal aid, although the solicitor has not made it clear to what level this applies or when and how much he might start being charged.

A mediation session was arranged by his solicitor, which he attended but his estranged wife refused to attend.

This was three weeks ago, and although he has requested a solicitors appointment, we haven't heard back from them yet.

So in five months, a mediation session has been arranged, which she failed to attend. Now we are wondering whether, if the next step is to go to court, this will be covered by his legal aid?

Now we are worried that because of her refusal to attend mediation, forcing the issue to be resolved in court, the legal aid will go onto a different level, and he will not be able to afford to go to court.

Apologies for the rambling - as I'm sure many many others know, it is so complicated, it is difficult to write a comprehensive account of how things are.

Any help on the issue of how his legal aid will be affected by her refusal to attend mediation would be much appreciated.

Thank you

It shoudl not affect his right to Legal Aid. His solicitor will ask the meditaor to sign an LSC APP7 form which will say that mediation was not appropriate as the other party refused to ooperate, and this allows your partner to apply for LEgal Aid to be represented at court. It is a different type of legal Aid to 'Legal Help' which is presumably what he has at present. He will need to compelte application forms including a means test, and he may be asked to pay a monthly contribution to his legal costs.

In terms of the bills etc. he needs to contact each of the utility companies and tell them to produce a final bill & close the account. They should do so, and they will then contact 'The occupier' to set up new accounts. The only one he wopn't be able to do this with is the mortgage.

The bank will not be able to close the joint account without the consent of both partis but should be able to freeze it.

He should speak to his solicitor first but if she is refusing to co-operate then it may be appropriate to give her (say) 1 month's notice that he will no longer be contributing to the bills etc. He can set up a new account and make mortgage payments from that and can also work out his CSA liability. With luck, this should be lower over all than the current payments, and as long as he closes the utility accounts before he stops paying into the joint account he will not be affected by any arrears which later build up on the utilities.

Of course, his ex MAY be entitled to some spousal maintenace - his solicitor shpuld be able to advise - but if he pays the mortgage plus CSA I would not, this may well be sufficient to cover whatever claims she would have.

He will need to freeze the joint bank account if he thinks she is likely to overdraw it.

Obviously, this is quite an agressive way to act so uit is important that he gives her the opportunity to cooperate before going down that route. I would suggest gettign hios solicitor to write to hers, asking her to cooperate to close the joint account and to transfer the bills into her name, making it clear that he will pay CSA level of mainteace and asking her to set out details of her income & outgoigns so that they can work out how to split the rest of the bills and mortgage pending any final split.

Thank you so much for the advice. I will definitely recommend to him that he contact the utility companies. As regards to some of the direct debits that are attached to the joint bank account, I'm not sure what he can do. Her store cards for example, as they are completely registered to her, he would not be able to close them. But at least, this will reduce the amount he is having to pay each month.

With regard to freezing the joint bank account, he has made so many phone calls to his bank I can't even count. Everyone he has spoken to says it is above their authority to freeze the account, and has recommended he write to the branch manager. He has called his branch to make an appointment with the manager but is still waiting (I believe he first made this request in November). He has also written a letter and sent it recorded delivery to the branch manager, outlining the situation and requesting the account be frozen, but this still hasn't been done. Before he did this his solicitor gave his estranged wife two months written notice that he was doing so. This letter gave clear notice of his intention to stop paying the utility bills, requested for her to arrange the transference of the bills to her account, and detailed the amount that he would be happy to pay (which was his calculated CSA payments, plus the mortgage). The solicitor detailed the recommended next steps that she take, but of course, this letter was ignored.

In the mean time, she has dumped the family car, which he obviously left for her use, at the back of his parents' house, filled with rubbish. She has bought a new car that is far beyond what either of them could have ever afforded. She has taken a substantial loan out to get a new kitchen, which she set up to come out of the joint bank account. He has no details of this loan or even where the kitchen has come from, so he cannot cancel this loan, or ask them to move it to another bank account.

It feels like she has ultimate control over his finances. If he just doesn't pay into the joint bank account, as he is unable to freeze the account, he is left jointly liable for all of the charges that accrue there.

Sorry.....I digress!

Should the solicitor get the mediator to fill in the LSC APP7 form automatically or does my partner need to request this? I'm not sure what is usual, but it has now been 3 weeks since she failed to attend mediation and although he has requested an appointment with the solicitor, no confirmation of this has been received. Will the mediator have contacted the solicitor to let them know that she did not attend?

I agree that it should be the next step to get his solicitor to contact hers to try and negotiate a more amicable way. However, she has not seen a solicitor, so there is none to write to. She is in complete denial that this is happening, which makes it difficult to progress. My heart breaks for this woman, but she is hugely destructive, and since they separated, has done nothing but try and cause the most damage that she can, both to his financial future, and the emotional health of their children.

I think that the only thing that we can do, is wait for the next solicitor's appointment, to try and get the contact order started as soon as possible. I am reassured by your reply that he will still be entitled to legal aid. He will find a way to contribute to his legal costs if this is required. I am just glad to hear that he will be able to continue to fight to see his children, and that this will not be prevented by financial restraints.

Thank you so much for your reply! If you have any advice on how to go about the freezing of the account, it would be much appreciated.

If he cannot freeze the account he can always stop paying money into it. That way he will force his ex's hand.