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I am a lawyer (not in family). Went through a horrendous divorce last year where my ex wife refused mediation at every stage. Family law is in a complete mess. I used lawyers during the early stages, particularly the child arrangements proceedings, but acted as a LIP during the later stages, and most of the financial proceedings, because, due to the nature of 'her needs', if I had continued paying for a lawyer, I would have ended up with nothing and no way to restart my life after the divorce. As it is, she got most of the money, because of 'her needs', refused to go back to work, I came out with enough for a deposit (10%) and that was that. She however can live mortgage free. She has a new fella, so can take that bought out spousal maintenance and give it all to him if she wanted to. The whole thing was essentially organised extortion, facilitated by lawyers. She used lawyers and the rising costs to essentially extort money from me. The only thing that kept me going was an amusing quote I read on a divorced dad's forum that said; I got a 50/50 divorce with my ex wife, my ex wife got 50% and the lawyers got 50%. Sums up my awful experience too. I only wish I had acted as a LIP earlier to avoid dreadful high and I am not convinced well spent, legal costs.