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Stuart J
Stuart J, Solicitor
Category: Family Law
Satisfied Customers: 26470
Experience:  Senior Partner at Berkson Wallace
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How do I find out if I am eligible for free legal advice for

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How do I find out if I am eligible for free legal advice for a divorce mediator?
JA: What are the assets involved here? Are there any minor children?
Customer: assets are property, pensions and vehicles only. No children.
JA: Were any marital funds used for the mortgage or property improvements?
Customer: Yes
JA: Is there anything else the Lawyer should know before I connect you? Rest assured that they'll be able to help you.
Customer: I am 62 years old and retired. I have been separated since January 2022 and am currently living in my caravan while my husband is in our house. I have an open case with Kent Police regarding domestic abuse, not physical abuse.
Stuart J

Hello. Thank you for the question. It is my pleasure to assist your with this today.
I have been in the legal profession, in high street practice, for 30 years so I have wide range of experience in a great many different aspects of law.
Please bear with me and I will be online and off-line from time to time and therefore, may be delayed getting back to you. You will receive an email when I reply.

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How long were you together and married in total?

and you wish to start divorce and financial settlement?

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Customer: replied 14 days ago.
We met in 2007 and married in 2011 so 15years and 11 years. Yes I do wish divorce and financial settlement
Customer: replied 14 days ago.
I do not have any income at the minute to pay for phone calls

You have probably seen a pop-up offering you the chance of a telephone call at an extra cost. It is up to you whether you have a telephone call or not but do bear in mind that a 15-30 minute telephone call covers an awful lot of ground and you can get an awful lot of information in that time. So you can ignore it or go ahead or go ahead later. It’s your choice.

Meanwhile, we can carry on on here.

I’m sorry to say that the chance of you getting free advice in respect of a divorce is remote in the extreme. It has long since disappeared for everything in divorce other than domestic abuse and child abduction.

However reading your question, the police have been involved with regard to domestic abuse so that is a good chance that you may get legal aid for the whole divorce.

CAUTION. It is not a free lunch and the legal aid would be repaid from any money that you get from the divorce settlement.

Not many solicitors do legally aided divorces.

You might need to ring round an awful lot of solicitors but you can search by postcode and specialism on the Law Society website www.lawsociety.org.uk find a solicitor link which is at the top left hand corner of the page.

Thank you for letting me assist you with your legal question. I am glad that I was able to help.

I am not certain whether that answers the question for you or not, but I am happy to answer any specific points arising from this.

It will be my pleasure to help you again either further with this or any future questions you have

Kind regards

Stuart

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Customer: replied 14 days ago.
Many thanks Stuart, but my initial question was not asking about legal aid for the whole divorce. It was about legal aid for a mediator, I believe the first meeting is a MIAM?

If you get legal aid for domestic abuse, you get legal aid for everything. You would normally get an exemption from mediation if there is domestic abuse

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Customer: replied 13 days ago.
how would I find out if I would get legal aid?

Surprising though it may seem, there is no Internet calculator that you can simply stick your assets and your income into and it will tell you whether you are eligible or not.

You have to go and see a solicitor that deals with legal aid, they will give you a broad outline of whether you are eligible and final decision comes from the legal aid Board.

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Customer: replied 13 days ago.
I see, so presumably I would need to pay for a solicitor to tell me if I am eligible or not, is that correct?

That’s right.

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Customer: replied 13 days ago.
Just as well I didn’t have £44 available today then, as you could have only told me the same answer!

That’s because the answer is the answer. Sometimes you already know what the answer is. All we can do is confirm that.

Nonetheless, I’m glad that I was able to help so far.

Thank you for trusting Just Answer with your legal problem.

Can I help you any further with this?

I'm happy to clarify anything which is outstanding. Please don't hesitate to ask.

Kind regards

Stuart

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Customer: replied 13 days ago.
No thank you, ***** *****

Hello again. If you don’t have any further questions, I will mark this question thread as complete but don’t worry, the thread stays open if anything else crops up over the course of the next days weeks or months. I’m glad that I was able to help. Thank you for trusting Just Answer with your legal problem. Kind regards Stuart

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