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I applied for contact with my C100 form in december 2011 after my ex girlfriend decided to create problems.
At that point I had no legal aid or support because as I was working full time I assumed I was not eligible.
My Initial C100 form was filled in through good advice I found on this site.
Submission to my local court £200
Subsequent communication between mine and her solicitors over three weeks £500
At this point I applied for legal aid.
Because my ex had asked for maintainence and now I was responsible for the whole of our house costs, after the evaluation
http://legalaidcalculator.justice.gov.uk/calculators/eligiCalc?execution=e1s1
I GOT LEGAL AID!
Now unfortunately things are about to change next month with regards to legal funding for family law cases.
If you cant get legal aid, follow what I am saying:
My solicitor treated me as a second rate client, (Privately funded clients pay a significantly higher rate) I can only assume this was exacerbated because I was funded by legal aid. I would wait for up to three weeks for a response to e-mails and only receive them after repeated requests and expressions of confusion at the lack of response.Many important communications I requested to my ex, and important dates were ignored, notably the availability of the cafcass officer we had asked to be involved to attend the next hearing (extremely crucial and would have taken one phonecall to arrange) This resulted ina 3...YES THREE month delay in my final hearing because she was so busy, The attendance of the Cfcass officer not only dictated the date of the next hearing but my frequency of contact with my daughter.
Various other problems resulted in a request to the Legal Services Commision that my legal aid certificate be transferred to a new solicitor (see previous posts). The LSC do not like to do this lightly and certainly not with little reason, but on this occasion they accepted my problems and transferred my certificate to a new solicitor.
Things actually got even worse after transferring my certificate to a new solicitor.
There was less profit on the certificate that had been transferred so priority was given to delaying things and coming back mid- next year with a new certificate. I was told to take a small bite of the apple and come back later,
I was told in the waiting room we would have a review, and on the way out of court I was told we would not have a review but a new legal aid certificate ina couple of months.
CONCLUSION:
Solicitors want money - no suprise there,
Solicitors will delay your hearings to wring out a legal aid certificate for all its worth - no real suprise there either,
Solicitors will make your kids sad because they are not getting suitable time with the people who mean the most to them.
Suprisingly corrupt and evil !
Profit based parasites!
My suggestion is that you represent yourself !
This is only my experience of solicitors acting through legal aid funding and i am confident that there are others who act in a scrupulous and correct manner.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us Matty 🙂
I think its really important that we all join forces and help those that are at the beginning of their journey. It can be a very daunting experience with lots of highs and lows along the way....I think its also important to note that even when things dont seem to be going well, they actually turn out ok in the end.
Hi Matty I agree with you.
After the stressful first direction and getting no where but caffcass told the court that my son IF HE HAD BEEN VERBALLY ABUSIVE TO THE MOTHER IN FRONT OF THE CHILD THIS WAS GOING TO BE HARMFUL, no such abuse took place(this was the mothers word only ) !!
So we thought we would see a solicitor it cost £120 for an hour which was a special offer !!, we wanted to know how much it would cost on the final hearing just to fight my sons corner as he is very quiet, First she did a legal aid assesment, nope he couldnt have legal aid, she then told us it would cost about 8k and they cant do just the final hearing, and we would have to pay up front £500 then when that was gone top it up another £500. When she figured out which didnt take long we couldnt afford that we were rushed to tell the story, she then made sure we had the £120 she just said I will send you some leaflets and said dont worry the court will see you right. after 45 mins we were ushered out to pay the money. So Matty I agree its all about the money.
Now i think in the next few months Dadsinfo is going to be very busy and I hope every one who has been helped will be on board to give advise and help where they can . Our case is still on going, the second hearing was adjorned due to mediation not being complete. Mediation going well and things moving forward so hopefully by the end of April our story will nearly be complete and I can share the experiance. I do have a gut feeling the court will wait to rubber stamp the agreement reached till it has been tried and tested then hopefully my son will be granted a P R and his name can then be on his childs BC where it rightfully belongs
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