Divorce Solicitors that specialise in Contractors with a Ltd Company

[macme]

Hi guys,

Need help with finding a solicitor that can help in putting together a counter proposal settlement.
I have just recently exchanged FORM E's with my wife's solicitor after she withdrew from Mediation with no valid reason (she's always intended to use a solicitor the onset tbh, but knew she had to be seen as have tried mediating in the past)

I have been running a Ltd company for 18 months now with a balance of 83K (not taking into account the liabilities)
In addition to this I had 16K in my savings.

We have 2 kids together a 19 yr old in university and a 8 yr old and have been married for 12 yrs. Initially just before mediation, I was trying to negotiate settlement on a personal level and gave her 25K a few months back and although she accepts she received a settlement of 25K, she's asking for more money. I just received a proposal from her solicitor asking fro 35K more and also a spousal maintenance of £1,000k a month.

We don't own a property together, she owns a council home with a rent of £600. She works part-time and seems to be refusing to go back to full time work saying our 8 year old has learning difficulties and therefore needs her attention at home.

In my FORM E I valued the company at £40K but her solicitors feels the company is worth 83K (saying they valued the company in terms of multiple of earnings). My contract has just ended 2 weeks back. She has a total asset of 48K (what's left of the 25K I gave her + her pension).
I have since just processed my self assessment return and it turns our I owe HMRC 30K (I did not include this in my FORM E).

Any advise from anyone who's dealt with a similar case... I don't want to waste money on solicitors but I need to make sure I'm not making silly mistakes dealing with her solicitors.

Some kind of PAYG solicitor tailored to give you want to want/require would be ideal.

Thanks in advance.

[BrilloPad]

Does your 8 year old have learning difficulties? Are they statemented?

The children(up to 18) do need to come first.

You made a huge mistake of going this alone without a solicitor. All solicitors are effectively PAYG. Did her solicitor advise you to get your own solicitor? If not, they are in the poo.

I did the finances without a solicitor - including representing myself in court - but then I had an incredible McKenzie friend.

Go and get a solicitor. Do not contact her solicitor yourself again.

Did you not do any research first? http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...following.html

Though there have been plenty of warnings about marriage since 2002 when f4j bought it to the world's attention.

Just to be clear - if you are a man - DO NOT GET MARRIED. DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN.

There again, happiness and contentment are over-rated.....

[northernladuk]

I have since just processed my self assessment return and it turns our I owe HMRC 30K

How did that happen?

[Lance]

I have since just processed my self assessment return and it turns our I owe HMRC 30K (I did not include this in my FORM E).

You need an accountant as well as a solicitor.

[gnarledcontractor]

First of all sorry to hear your story.

I was in a similar situation at the end of 2014. We had exchanged Form E's and my accountant had submitted his appraisal of the worth of the company
to my ex's solicitors. They disputed the worth of the company even though my accountant gave them 2 years of accounts to look at. Her solicitors threatened
hiring some financial forensic experts.

My solicitor advised that the Judge (given that I had a similar company worth to yours) was unlikely to order to close the company, the likeliest scenario was
a rather larger dividend draw than you may have intended in order to form part of the settlement. However, I did not have any children.

I echo the advice of Brillo, get a solicitor now, money on a good solicitor is not a waste - however, be careful to choose your battles and indeed what the
solicitor acts on. If you can find a settlement which involves not touching company money then that is the best outcome, however there is a maximum of two court appearances
to sort this out. My advice is to try and sort it out out of court as most solicitors daily court rates are expensive.

I'm sure you probably realise this, but unless you get a signed agreement from a solictor that you've given her £25k then you can effectively write it off.

I think the wisest way forward is to try and get yours and her solicitors to agree a figure based on the fact that you've already given her £25k to avoid a court appearance.

I had to go to court as my ex was extremely determined to get as much money out of my company as possible. The outcome was that the judge told her solicitor that depriving me of the means to
a. pay the mortgage on the house my ex had moved out of and b. depriving me of the means to live was counterproductive to a quick resolution (my solicitor told him we would fight any attempt to
leverage company funds as part of a settlement and so we settled on amount which was (in my opinion) much more than she deserved.

I figured it was better to finish the matter by losing a large sum now and then continue contracting betting that with a fair wind that in a few years time I could recover.

In a nutshell

1. Get a solicitor
2. Start talking to your accountant on what can be done to mitigate funds that can be drawn from company
3. And finally, as Brillo says (don't get married again!)

[macme]

How did that happen?

Paid over 75K in dividends.....

[macme]

Does your 8 year old have learning difficulties? Are they statemented?

The children(up to 18) do need to come first.

You made a huge mistake of going this alone without a solicitor. All solicitors are effectively PAYG. Did her solicitor advise you to get your own solicitor? If not, they are in the poo.

I did the finances without a solicitor - including representing myself in court - but then I had an incredible McKenzie friend.

Go and get a solicitor. Do not contact her solicitor yourself again.

Did you not do any research first? http://forums.contractoruk.com/gener...following.html

Though there have been plenty of warnings about marriage since 2002 when f4j bought it to the world's attention.

Just to be clear - if you are a man - DO NOT GET MARRIED. DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN.

There again, happiness and contentment are over-rated.....

Thanks for the reply. Yes, his learning difficulties are statemented but nothing severe enough to warrant her decision not to work full time.

[macme]

First of all sorry to hear your story.

I was in a similar situation at the end of 2014. We had exchanged Form E's and my accountant had submitted his appraisal of the worth of the company
to my ex's solicitors. They disputed the worth of the company even though my accountant gave them 2 years of accounts to look at. Her solicitors threatened
hiring some financial forensic experts.

My solicitor advised that the Judge (given that I had a similar company worth to yours) was unlikely to order to close the company, the likeliest scenario was
a rather larger dividend draw than you may have intended in order to form part of the settlement. However, I did not have any children.


I echo the advice of Brillo, get a solicitor now, money on a good solicitor is not a waste - however, be careful to choose your battles and indeed what the
solicitor acts on. If you can find a settlement which involves not touching company money then that is the best outcome, however there is a maximum of two court appearances
to sort this out. My advice is to try and sort it out out of court as most solicitors daily court rates are expensive.

I'm sure you probably realise this, but unless you get a signed agreement from a solictor that you've given her £25k then you can effectively write it off.

I think the wisest way forward is to try and get yours and her solicitors to agree a figure based on the fact that you've already given her £25k to avoid a court appearance.

I had to go to court as my ex was extremely determined to get as much money out of my company as possible. The outcome was that the judge told her solicitor that depriving me of the means to
a. pay the mortgage on the house my ex had moved out of and b. depriving me of the means to live was counterproductive to a quick resolution (my solicitor told him we would fight any attempt to
leverage company funds as part of a settlement and so we settled on amount which was (in my opinion) much more than she deserved.

I figured it was better to finish the matter by losing a large sum now and then continue contracting betting that with a fair wind that in a few years time I could recover.

In a nutshell

1. Get a solicitor
2. Start talking to your accountant on what can be done to mitigate funds that can be drawn from company
3. And finally, as Brillo says (don't get married again!)

Many many thanks - got the ball rolling on the first 2 points and on point 3, well, once bitten, twice shy! :-)

[SueEllen]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, his learning difficulties are statemented but nothing severe enough to warrant her decision not to work full time.

In your unmedical opinion. I guess though you have been to all the doctors/therapist appointments to understand what help he needs at home after school?

[BrilloPad]

In your unmedical opinion. I guess though you have been to all the doctors/therapist appointments to understand what help he needs at home after school?

I was thinking that. I have 2 disabled children - MrsBP would struggle with even a part time job.