CONTACT and MORE
Hi,
This is a single issue blog and that issue is equality in treatment in law, specifically Divorce Law. I would never have believed that a system that claims to give equality in treatment in law could so badly fail and destroy the fabric of my family in the process.
If you need to contact me, my email and pseudo is Arnie Saccnuson 
, If anybody else has experienced problems with Goughs Solicitors I would be interested to hear and likewise anybody who has anything complimentary to say about Goughs Solicitors I would also be interested to hear.
I can only comment upon my experience and advise anybody considering divorce not to use Mr Boyce.
He was from day one extremely verbose, confrontational and I believe dishonest and negligent, but he was representing my former wife, so I would believe that wouldnt I.
I can tell you the outcome, my two children were separated, I was given the custody of our son and my xwife the custody of our daughter , she moved 100 miles away and broke off contact between our son and myself. Today 5 years after the divorce the bitterness and acrimony that was encouraged and used to win a financial settlement rages with no end in sight.
April 2002, I admitted to having an affair, this was shortly after the second of two miss-carriages. We are talking a twenty year relationship here and there no excuses, I should have left a lot earlier but fathers in contested child custody are most certainly handicapped and my children were my life. They filled the gaps of what had become an empty and hollow relationship. We spoke seriously about separation in 1992, but It was made clear that the exclusive custody of the children would be sort by xwifey, so I stayed with it until our sons 12th year and our daughters 10th year.
I left the family home in April 2002 and setup a standing order for £700 per month, we attended relate weekly and tried to see if anything could be salvaged, the kids were shared on virtually a joint residence basis and we also managed a family break to Euro Disney. I can’t speak for my xwifey, but I personally couldnt see that getting back together would be anything other than more of the same, anyway in October 2002, at the final argument, the one where she tells you that you are going to get a letter from her solicitors, she said to me that she was going to move and put as many miles between me and the children as was humanly possible and that there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop her. The first letter berated me about my adulterous behaviour, my terrible skills as a father and demanded an immediate increase in payments to £1200. This was ridiculous in terms of my actual income and the courts later decided that £424 was more than generous, but this was the style in which Mr Boyce conducted himself throughout the two years my family had dealings with him.
I instructed a Cirencester firm, who asked repeatedly about her intention to move but the response at every point of asking was “there are no plans to move.” Both my solicitor and Mr Boyce were members of the Solicitors Family Law Association, indeed Mr Boyce thought he was an Accredited Mediator for SFLA, anyway my solicitor told me about the separation of children and finance and urged me to be pragmatic to reduce acrimony and get to get on with my life, so with that in mind, at first appointment we hammered out a very favourable settlement for xwifey for the assets and maintenance, the asset split was around 70% in her favour. That was sometime in march 2003, throughout the period Oct 2002 – March 2003 I was being made aware of xwifey attending job interviews and house hunting some one hundred miles away and after a specific incident in June 2003 I sacked my solicitor and asked Mr Boyce to come clean and sort out the children first, because if she moved I couldnt cope on that basis. It was looking increasingly likely that should she decide to move that our son wouldnt want to move. I employed another firm who immediately started proceedings for shared residency of the children. Mr Boyce replied that there were no plans to move and rejected the need for residency of the children to be decided by the courts and they claimed that the original financial agreement was a legally binding document. Cafcass looked at the residency issue and decided upon shared residency and on the basis of those recommendations that had been verbally communicated to both poarties by the time of the Final hearing on finances in November 2003, we agreed a split of over 70% in assets and £424 in maintenance.
On December 30th 2003 xwifey instructed Mr Boyce to request a new Caffcas report on the basis that she was moving and leaving her son behind. I was informed by Goughs mid January and the main reason they cited was unrelaibility in payment and specifically January’s late payment. This was a complete lie, I can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that from April 2002 – October 2002 I paid £700 per month and from October 2002 – November 2003 I paid £500 without fail and at no time had Mr Boyce written to me about unreliability of payment. The November 2003 financial settlement meant a transfer of £10,000 to me that wasn’t actually paid until February 2004, and her instruction to her solicitor were actually made before January had even started a complete lie and misdirection of a court.
The court for the children wouldn’t consider the finances but in his Judgement the Judge quite clearly accepted that an agreement had been gained under false premise. I had 21 days in which to appeal which I didnt do because quite simply although Mr Boyce was negligent and most likely complicit in misdirected a court, it would have been my family that would have suffered the consequences of even more legal action and acrimony.
My solicitor now left me because my finances were exhausted and in March 2004 the Court agreed to split up my children despite the fact I begged then to do anything other than that, I could have accommodated either outcome that didnt split up the children but that was cruellest thing to do to any family. As a litigant in person I reapplied to the Courts to reconsider, I was quite desperate and ill informed about the process and the Judge ruled that my application was an abuse of process and I was fined £2000 and for good measure I was also slapped with non molestation order
During the finances an old property transaction came to light and because I fessed up to a minor conveyancing irregularity to my barrister I was placed under investigation for three months by the proceeds of crime act, who found nothing wrong but the reason that I mention this, is again is equality in treatment. I dont want to reiterate issues that I posted here before, but I told the truth from day one, I said she was going to move and I said that I couldnt cope, yet a professional and practising divorce solicitor can abuse the process to maximize financial gain and falsley represent himself and even seek endorsement from that false representation and then carry on life with no sanction or oversight whatsoever. His advertised persona was a man of mediation, he was supposed to be following the SFLA Code of Practice yet his actions were highly confrontational and totally destructive to my family.
That story doesn’t represent equality in treatment whatsoever and this is why I am bringing it to the public’s attention by use of this blog, because both the Law Scoiety and Resolution can see no fault or any problem with that level of professional standard, which most likely means that this low professional standard is being applied hroughout divorce, and I, as a British citizen do not accept that this represents equality in treatment in law. I am put under investigation by the proceeds of crime act, fined £2000 for abuse of process and the fabric of my family is shredded yet I told the truth and Mr Boyce did exactly as described.
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