No advice for 2 years..

My financial settlement took 42 months..I went into the divorce offering my ex wife 35%.At the time that seemed reasonable to me. We had been married nearly 15 years but then separated 8 years before divorcing..When we split up we divided all assets 50/50..apart from my pension.When it came to the financial settlement after divorce I offered my ex wife 35% of my pension because I thought that was reasonable.At no time did my solicitor advise me otherwise.This offer was raised to 38% after a while..My ex wife accepted that figure but my solicitor advised me not to sign because there was clause in the Consent Order which meant my wife could return to court to ask for more money..This was the only time my solicitor gave me any advice. My ex wife started to ask for 55% of my pension.I was horrified and then my solicitor left the company.My new solicitor negotiated a 52/48 % in my favour and that has been finalised after another 18 months.
My question is should I have been advised by my first solicitor that a 50/50 split was the reasonable way to go instead of wasting 2 years and £2500 in time and money asking for my ex wife to accept 35% of my pension?

The presumed start point for division of assets after a long marriage is 50:50. That isn't always how it ends up because all sorts of factors come into play. This includes ages, incomes etc and children and their needs are also key.Your marriage ended up being over 20 years so definitely long.

As far as pensions go, there are arguments to reduce the share ... This may be e.g. because a considerable portion was accrued pre marriage. If she has any pension provision, that too would be factored in.

A 50:50 pension share doesn't necessarily mean the pension pot is split in half in cash terms. It could lease to an apparently unequal split because that is what is needed to provide the same incomes on retirement.

Did you do any form of financial disclosure?

Depending on the circumstances your offer may have been within the spectrum of fairness. Your ex accepted it. The only real test is to put the matter before a judge who has been fully apprised of the circumstances. You ware well advised not to agree anything that allowed further bites of the cherry.

Hadenoughnow