[danielvf]

You can see the UI for UK's divorce lawyers in this training document[1] pdf. It's not actually that bad, but the payment flow only shows case numbers, not names.

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However, the headline for this article is a bit misleading. It sounds like the lawyers just divorced a random married couple, and the judge refused to undo it.

But if you go through the article, and put together the clues like a game of Dog Crimes, you get the following sequence of events:

1) The wife hired a speciality divorce law firm. 2) The law firm had already completed all divorce paperwork and uploaded documents into court web system for the wife divorcing the husband. 3) The law firm accidentally selected this "case" to submit and pay for, rather than another intended case. 4) Per UK law the husband would have been officially notified of the completion of the divorce. 5) The wife was not happy about this surprise. 6) The wife's law firm went to court to undo the divorce. 7) The husband hired his own lawyers to keep the divorce. 8) Given that all the paperwork was correct filed, and one member of the couple wanted to keep the divorce the judge let it stand.

[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

[Ekaros]

So only issue really was that wife's filing went active earlier than she would have wanted... And husband sensibly decide just to take the opportunity...

[shubb]

No, it sounds like her lawyer essentially agreed to an unfavourable divorce settlement that was still being negotiated. She may have lost out anything from custody of her children to millions of dollars.

[gizmo686]

I don't know about UK law, but my understanding of the law around here is:

For custody issues, absent extreme circumstances, custody cases don't end until at least the child turns 18. Getting an unfavorable settlement here is a problem, but likely isn't unrecoverable. Typically a judge won't modify a custody arrangement without a change of circumstance; but they do have considerable discretion.

For the financial issues; this is what lawsuits are for. If her law firm does not make her whole on their own, she should hire a legal malpractice attorney who will probably be able to convince them.

[talldatethrow]

If your lawyer makes a mistake, sue them I suppose. But we can't have people arguing "oops!" and unwinding settled court deals easily can we?

[Wololooo]

Happy little accident.