Family Law Solicitors
A difficult and emotionally charged time
What is family law?
Family disputes and conflicts arise can arise over children, property and finances when couples split up. Family law is the legal rules and guidelines for settling that conflict. This can be a difficult and emotionally challenged time. You will receive expert, cost-effective guidance which delivers the best possible solution to the issues in your case, if you work with us.
Our family team offer a free 40 minute consultation. Unfortunately we do not offer legal aid.
What family law areas do we cover?
Family and Divorce Law Enquiry
Fill out the form and a member of our team will get in touch to discuss how we can help.
What is family law?
Family disputes and conflicts arise can arise over children, property and finances when couples split up. Family law is the legal rules and guidelines for settling that conflict. This can be a difficult and emotionally charged time. You will receive expert, cost-effective guidance which delivers the best possible solution to the issues in your case, if you work with us.
What family law areas do we cover?
Divorce
The breakdown of a marriage can be incredibly stressful and difficult for anyone to go through. Recent changes to divorce law have helped, making getting divorced more straightforward and we can help you through that process. Sorting out your pension, financial settlement or financial provisions for your children is often the most stressful aspect of a divorce. You will receive expert, cost-effective guidance which delivers the best possible solution to the issues in your case, if you work with us.
You will have a dedicated solicitor, who provides a sympathetic and pragmatic approach, offering a meticulous and efficient service tailored to your situation.
Mediation
Family mediation is a process which can be used by a couple who is separating or going through a divorce/dissolution of civil partnership, to resolve disputes between them.
Child Arrangement Orders
You may need a Child Arrangements Order if you cannot agree arrangements between yourselves. The order will set out which parent the children will live with and how much time they spend with the other parent. Orders for shared care, setting out that the children will live with both parents, are becoming more common.
Pre-Nuptial Agreements
A prenuptial agreement is a contract that you enter into before you marry. It’s a record of ownership of assets and how those assets will be shared between you if the marriage breaks down.
Domestic Violence
No-one should have to tolerate domestic abuse from their partner or any other family member. The whole team are experienced in making urgent court applications for injunctions, court orders protecting you from abuse.
Parental Responsibility
A parental responsibility agreement is a formal written agreement, usually made between a mother and father to give the father Parental Responsibility for their child or children. The agreement must be on the correct court form, witnessed by a member of staff from the court and registered at the Central Family Court. A father will only need a parental responsibility agreement if they are not married or in a civil partnership with the mother. Stepparents and same-sex parents may also be able to enter into parental responsibility agreements.
Recent cases
As well as having dealt with complex businesses and high net worth cases, in the last year the family team have advised on:
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- Pre-nuptial agreements, including one for a multi-millionaire art collector
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- Nullity proceedings
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- Complex financial settlements including family business and professional partnerships and family trusts
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- Successfully mediated disputes between two parties
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- Complex child arrangements and relocation cases
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- Urgent applications including emergency freezing applications to freeze assets before they could be removed
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- To be able to offer you the best service, Jessica is a fully accredited Mediator.
The team also covers all areas of private children law, including protracted cases where there are allegations of domestic abuse and alienation.
Frequently asked questions
This depends on the nature and extent of work that we carry out for you and the level of experience of the lawyer or lawyers who work on your case. The more experienced the solicitor, the higher they hourly charge will be. We will discuss with you the most appropriate level of lawyer to do your work and we will allocate tasks accordingly. We do not carry out work on a fixed fee basis but we will provide you with our best estimate of what your legal costs will be and update that estimate as the case proceeds.
We can take initial steps as soon as you have dealt with the formalities for opening your file. The first step might be an initial letter to the other party or a referral to mediation. If you need to make a court application you will, in most cases, need to try mediation first. There are exceptions to this requirement which we will consider with you. If your case is urgent, it can be heard in a matter of days, or even that day in the event of an extreme emergency.
No. The court operates what is known as the “no order” principle and does not expect parents to go to court if they can agree arrangements for their children. If you find it difficult to reach an agreement between yourselves, try mediation. If you can agree arrangements, consider drawing up a written parenting plan. (link). The family team can help you with this.
The whole team is experienced advocates and we regularly represent our clients at court where possible by doing the advocacy ourselves. We will use the services of barristers where essential, such as in complex cases or final hearings, to save costs and to promote continuity and approach.
It's a bit of a myth when people say she or he is my common law wife or husband, there is no such thing. Unfortunately, the laws in this country don't protect unmarried couples as they do married couples. For example, if you own a property together, and one of you have made a huge contribution to that but you own it jointly, the court is likely to follow the legal title of the property. Additionally, if you have been living together for a very long time, you won't be entitled to any maintenance. You won't be entitled to any pension rights. So, you're quite unprotected in a way and people often sadly think that they have the same rights. You'd have to rely on trust law which can be very complicated and costly unfortunately.
Mullis & Peake have specialists in family, TOLATA and divorce law ready to help you. Our family team offer a free 40 minute consultation. Please call us on 01708 784000 to book an appointment. Come and meet us and see what we have to offer.
Alternatively, request a call back to have one of our people contact you at a time that suits.