Top 10 things you need to know before hiring a solicitor

TOP lawyer Vanessa Lloyd Platt gives her 10 tips on how to approach divorce – for free. 4 1 Choose the right lawyer. Your personalities must match. If you are someone who is a bit 5 nervous and frightened, you don’t want someone you cannot communicate with. 2 Choose someone at a price you can afford. 6 3 Write out a short history of what’s happened before you go to see the lawyer.

Write down a list of all the questions you want to ask your lawyer.

Don’t carry anger too much into your meeting with the lawyer. It might obscure some of the important things.

Tell your lawyer everything. Often people say just as they’re leaving, ‘Oh does it matter

that he’s got a child by someone else?’

7 Be careful with your expectations. Just because your friend has got a big settlement, doesn’t mean you are going to.

8 If you do get a settlement, do not blow it with the first person offering an investment.

9 Your children are not deaf. So be very careful where you have any conversations

about your case and how you have them. 10 Do not think there is some kind of a freefor-all that allows you to go into your partner’s laptop or mobile phone without permission. People think it is acceptable, but a lawyer is not permitted to look at it if it is unlawfully obtained. GOOD ADVICE Lawyer Vanessa