I am about to start divorce proceeding. My wife and I have reached an agreement about most things except she wants a monthly maintenance payment as she claims her monthly salary is to low to live off.

I'm looking for legal advice as to whether I should agree to this to stop her going after my other assets. I don't see the need at the moment to meet with a lawyer and have a face to face discussion as we agree on everything else.

What I want is a lawyer I can email and who will explain the relevant law to me for a fixed fee either by return email or telephone. I know this sort of service does exist, although I couldn't find anything via google. Help appreciated.

Anyone else paying or receiving maintenance when there are no children involved?

Hi Craig - am doing the same, but don't want to advertize details. Please PM with your stuff and I'll get in touch.

Hi Craig,

The first thing I would do is talk to the Citizen's Advice Bureau in the UK. I assume the divorce will be handled through the UK courts?

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

I may be wrong but I don't believe that unless there are very unusual circumstances that your wife is entitled to any maintenance from you if there are no children involved. I think only where she can prove she sacrificed her income to support your career or financially contributed to getting you where you are now with your earnings. I went through this about 3 years ago and both me and my ex sold all of our shared commodities, split them and then kept our own finances (despite my ex husband earning less than me).

Good luck, divorce is never a nice experience.

Hi Mimi,

No unfortunately Swiss courts and Swiss law. She is Swiss I've lived here for 8 years. GB is a distant and rainy island. Law is different here if she can argue that she would be destitute as a result of divorce, i.e. would need to claim social security then she can hit me for maintenance. I'm don't know of any equivalent to Citizens Advice Bureau here.

I sold my house in the UK to buy an apartment here and I'm concerned she will try to take half of that.

Craig

Oh sh!t Craig. That is really unfair Surely she was able to provide for herself before marriage so it seems odd that she would now be able to claim becoming destitute as a reason for grabbing your cash....especially when there are no kids involved.

I would talk to the British Embassy as I am sure they will have experience of cases like this. I truly hope things work out for you. Good luck.

Did you have the house in the UK when you were married, as part of your marital property? If so, she's mostly likely got a legal right to half of it....

I had the house in the UK before we even met each other and it was always in my name. I sold it and paid the money into our joint account which was then used to buy the apartment here. Not the smartest thing to do in retrospect.

Craig,

Firstly from my experience of my clients; no divorce seems to be amicable at the end of the day.

Make sure that you open your own bank account, put utility bills in your own name if your own house.
Get any verbal agreements you have made put in writing signed by both so no turning back. You will find that agreements change and people forget what they agreed.

I understand when I looked into marriage in Switzerland and pre-nuptial agreements (must have had some sort of concern) that divorce is much fairer in Switzerland than in the UK.

If I have 1,000,000 CHF of assets and she has 2,000 CHF at time of marriage (I agther this would be provable by Tax Return filed for wealth tax) and then when you split and your combined assets are say now 2,000,000 CHF.
The split would be as follows:

Increase in assets:
2,000,000 - (1,000,000 +2,000) => 998,000
Divide by 2 => 499,000 increase each

You would get 499,000 + 1,000,000 => 1,499,000
She would get 499,000 + 2,000 => 501,000

That actually seems fair to me.

Not like the UK law cases I read where you marry some council house slapper who then takes you to the cleaner. Her claim is that she knew she was stunning and was expecting a high maintenance life-style as a result.

You can have a laugh at me. I was dating a Russian widower in the UK.
She had two children (one from previous Russian husband and one from recently dead UK husband).
When she started telling me that £100,000 life assurance was only £14 per month and wouldn't it make sense to write a will leaving my assets to her and her children.
That is when I called the engagement off.
I asked for the ring back to see how she would react. She said "that a £2,000 ring wasn't much return for her having put up with me for two years".
Ukranians/Russians - they are dodgy and on a mission
I had a lucky escape.

__________________
I do not have friends..........I have contingent liabilities

You can get legal adive at the district court in Basel-Stadt. If you live in canton Basel-land this service might not be available. In case that the divorce case is already pending they will only answer procedural questions. Bring all relevant documents with you.

http://www.gerichte.bs.ch/zg-rechtsauskunft.htm

My information is congruent with Cashboy:
Spouses share 50% of accrual during marriage. They each keep whatever they had before marriage.

Dude, you need help. Divorce in this country favours the woman. If you are earning more than she is then you will be expected to pay a certain amount depending on the difference between your salaries and the length of time that you were married.

Talk to these guys and ask to speak with an English counsellor. You pay 100.- to join and then per session. You can even communicate by email.

Depending upon how much she is asking for and for how many years you may be better off paying her rather than dragging this through the courts.