Legal Aid.....private solicitors fees???!!!!

I left my stbx in Nov '10, I had to claim JSA as my previous job was working for him. I was then getting legal aid. In May this year I received an inheritence which had to be used to pay off credit card bills that had accumilated during the marriage. I was then told that I could no longer get legal aid due to the inheritence.....AARRGGGHH!!! I have approx £3k left and it's emptying fast......divorce is still funded bt I have to pay for the finances side and am fighting for supervised visits only (I have a 17yr old, 12yr old, and an 8yr old) Only my youngest wants contact (eldest 2 dont want any due to my stbx's DV and emotional abuse to me and them) and have already had a wishes and feeling done by CAFCASS. Have a fact finding hearing in October, and then hopefully Cafcass will be doing a full section 7.

I have had £1,500 bill from solicitor this week and am wondering what happens when the pot is empty??!!! Surely I am not expected to just give in and let stbx have unsupervised contact because I have run out of money to fight it?? What if then, something happened to my son??

Please can someone help, I am at the end of my tether not knowing where I can go from here

As the monies dwindle you will become eligible for public funding and your application can be resurrected or a new application can be made.

Charles

Thanks for that.....I expect it to be only a few weeks before all my money is gone!! I am expecting a fight about it though as all I kept getting from LSC before was that the goverment is tightening the purse strings and I shouldn't have paid the debts off!!

Which is a perfectly understandable position by the LSC.

I recall a friend ('friend 1'), who worked in the games industry, giving all of his friends an Xbox 360 (after pulling in various favours) so that they could join Xbox live (XBL) and play games on a Wednesday night – one a month or so. XBL allows you to chat online with headsets whilst playing games or in a private lobby. It sounds nerdy but as all of the friends were based all over the country it was better than meeting up once or twice per year.

Anyway, one of the friends ('friend 2') is not very good with his money. He has an addiction to consoles, mobile gaming systems and technology in general. He regularly purchases items for full retail price, uses them for a short time (weeks or months) and sells them for half the price. The Nintendo 3DS was the last of these and the new Sony Vita will be the next.

After receiving his free 360, friend 2 used it for less than 6 months then sold it, unbeknownst to friend 1. A couple of months later, friend 1 suggested a Wednesday night for everyone to meet up on XBL. Friend 2 said he could not as he had sold his 360 because "he needed the money". Friend 1 is a kindly soul – he moaned for a month or two, gave friend 1 the benefit of the doubt then gave friend 2 *another* free 360.

Stay with me here…

Friend 2 managed to keep the 360 for around 12 months then sold it. He then purchased a Sony PS3, using a credit card to meet the difference. Friend 1 was not impressed.

Getting back to the point.

- The LSC is friend 1. The person seeking legal aid is friend 2.
- Friend 1 gave the 360 (legal aid) to friend 2.
- Friend 2 obtained some money, which required that the 360 was returned.
- Friend 2 kept the 360 and paid off her debts.
- Friend 1 was not impressed.
- Friend 1 took back the 360.

The original friend was taken for a fool as he is naturally benevolent. The LSC cannot afford to be this way and not only did it refuse to hand over a second Xbox 360, it required the return of the first 360.

It's a clunky metaphor but it works for me. If I was trying to use the legal aid analogy when describing the Xbox fiasco, I would surely get into some trouble.

Having legal aid is better than not having legal aid, even if you have to pay back your costs as these are invariably only 35-50% of the cost of fees incurred privately. The solicitor bears the shortfall and works very hard for that 35-50% - jumping through hoops all of the way.

This is not directly on topic but I had a few minutes to spare. For reference, I was one of the people with an Xbox but rarely have time to use it as I am usually busy, cooking, cleaning, working and posting on wikivorce

Charles