When a man caught his junior barrister wife in an affair with a senior Queen’s Counsel, she graciously explained to him that they shouldn’t cite “adultery” as the motivation for their impending divorce, claiming that it would be easier to just cite “unreasonable behaviour.” The unnamed man who, for probably the first time in his life, figured out that maybe he shouldn’t blindly trust everything she’s telling him, opted to seek out legal counsel to protect his interests.
Well, not quite. He decided to ask Reddit what he should do. In the words of our friends at Legal Cheek, “As you do.”
My wife is less than 1 year qualified and the QC has gotten her a new, much more senior, position at another firm and will be using her as his junior counsel on trials. Not sure how ethically sound this is or if it constitutes an abuse of power.
The classic British understatement remains as robust as ever as he’s “not sure” if this is ethically sound.
In any event, Reddit came to the rescue and gave this man the advice that all of you are currently yelling at your computer screens:
1. don’t listen to what she says. Get your own lawyer and follow that advice.
2. she may or may not work in your interest so it’s imperative that everything you do must be through another lawyer to protect you and your interests.
It’s possible that the woman is offering fair advice. One commenter noted that adultery requires more proof than “unreasonable behaviour,” but there’s also no reason to believe he doesn’t already have that proof. May as well check with a lawyer on that one.
Another wrote, “Lawyer up,” and another wrote, “The only advice I can give is to not listen to the person you are divorcing or their lawyer for legal advice, moreso when they are the same person.” Some 64 comments in, the man started to notice a pattern:
Thanks for your response.
Seeing a trend in the comments here and I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. I’ll look into getting a solicitor.
Reddit law school wins! Who says the internet is just for hate groups and porn?
Husband asks internet for legal advice after catching junior barrister wife having affair with QC colleague [Legal Cheek]
I [28M] am divorcing a divorce lawyer [28F] and looking for advice [Reddit]
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.