We receive a lot of queries along the following lines: I have started my DIY Divorce and my partner is not responding and the DIY Company says there is nothing more we can do. You should engage a local family law solicitor as you need to apply for judgement in default. Another query would be that they have started a DIY Divorce and that the case is now in Case progression and we need to file a Form 37 and we don’t know what to do next. There are any number of examples like this. It boils down to people with a Family Home together and pensions and good incomes who choose to save money by attempting to navigate the choppy waters of the family law courts on their own.
Before I go any further I have to say that I cannot disagree with their thought process in any way. If I was to walk in their shoes for a moment what do I see? We are normal people both with simple P60 salaries of €60,000, we have a mortgage on our property of 200k and the property has 200k equity. I have sought quotes from solicitors and looked online and the quotes I am given can amount to between the two of us 20,000. We pay almost 40% tax, we are not big business people so for us to earn this money, we would have to each give up 1/3 of our annual salary. Why do we have to do this when we pretty much agree on everything? The answer: We are both intelligent people so let’s do it ourselves and pay €600 instead of €20,000. I cannot argue with that logic.
The Problem is that what is not apparent to you is that for better or worse the court system in Ireland (and everywhere) has not been perfected by Google to enhance the user experience. What you will encounter seems to be an archaic world of Forms with unusual titles like Civil Bill, Unusual terms like affidavit of service, unusually titled people like Commissioner for Oaths, and a Customer Service Model that essentially was designed to deal with solicitors, not the General Public. As well as this you will be required to enter the labyrinth that is dealing with the banks on obtaining approvals, succession rights, and of course Pension companies and death in service benefits and on and on. Even with all this, with the required persistence and research the path may be navigated. However, what happens when one spouse and another spouse disagree about any aspect of their agreement? Unsurprisingly because of the nature of the proceedings, this has understandably a high probability of happening. This is where at some stage the call comes to a solicitor’s office. I’ve reached a stumbling block or my spouse has stopped agreeing and the court office says I need something called a judgement in default (whatever that is).
Now see it from our point of view. Compare it to a builder who is being told that a person with no building experience has built the house to the halfway point and now they need help. Oh, and they also want you to stand over the work already done so if the house falls and hurts somebody it will be your responsibility. It is not an attractive proposition and in fact, it requires more work to fix something than to start cleanly and correctly from the start. That is why the same boring but necessary work needs to be done. In the same way, the professional builder creates a solid foundation, we have to assess the financial situation and foresee what a judge will deem a reasonable and fair dissolution of assets.
So I can clearly see the impetus amongst people to attempt to do it themselves. I understand that there is enough difficulty going on in their lives without having more expenses put on their shoulders. Unfortunately, it is better to realise it now that there is no shortcut to putting both of you on a sound legal footing to move on with your lives. It is better to bite the bullet now and face the pain now. It is better than the alternative of spending multiple wasted hours and then ending up ringing up the solicitor’s office anyway.
