Divorce lawyers are accused of inflaming disputes and over-charging can The Divorce Consultancy help?
David Margo, a former solicitor and co-founder of The Divorce Consultancy, says his clients are forever complaining about London’s divorce lawyers. Among the most common complaints, he says, is that lawyers cause conflict between the parties of a divorcing couple when none existed before proceedings started.
Margo sums up the charge thus: ‘Lawyers inflame matters by sending unnecessarily acrimonious letters and employ whatever tactics they can to score points, without thought for the fact that families often have to co-exist with each other long past their lawyer’s involvement.’
Margo’s consultancy, which he co-founded with ex barrister Laura Rosefield, guides clients through divorce and aims to demystify the process. His description of his client’s complaints supports the findings of a report by the Legal Ombudsman released at the end of February; 13 per cent of the report’s respondents said they were unhappy with their lawyers throughout divorce proceedings, complaining of poor levels of communication and enormous fees.
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Margo’s clients make similar complaints: ‘They say that the fees are outrageously high and that the interests of lawyers are inversely aligned with theirs: the longer a case goes on, the more the lawyer earns, but the more the client and family suffer.’
The Divorce Consultancy is well placed to assuage this apparently widespread dissatisfaction with divorce lawyers in the UK. ‘We wanted to fill the gap between the divorce lawyer and the therapist’, says Margo, ‘and to make sure that people starting the process found themselves the right legal team for them.
‘[We] then work closely with this team to ensure that our clients do not come out of the process broken, but empowered and strong to face the next phase of their lives.’
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