Family Law
Divorce
Do you need help with:
- Making a separation legal?
- Getting a divorce?
- Sorting out the financial aspects of a relationship?
- Understanding grounds for divorce?
- Your rights in divorce?
- Agreeing residence and contact for the children?
Our family law specialist can help with these questions and give professional divorce advice.
Children
In a divorce or relationship break-up, it can be the children who suffer more than anyone. The life they have known is changed forever; there is often upheaval at home and it can have a lasting effect on them. So, deciding how best to look after any children should be one of the over-riding priorities for any separating couple. This involves minimising the impact upon the child’s daily lives where possible, ensuring they are provided for financially and that they continue to benefit from being with both parents wherever possible. The law is very clearly based upon the rights of the children, rather than those of the parents.
In most instances, absent parents have the right to see their children regularly, know where they are living and have access to certain information about their upbringing, such as how they are doing at school. Parties may apply to court for orders of contact or residence for their children.
See below for information relating to unmarried couples.
Step-parents and grandparents also have a certain expectation of being involved in the lives of the children of their new partners. Their rights and responsibilities are more limited.
For advice on any of these matters please contact us.
Financial
When a marriage breaks down, the assets and liabilities of both parties form the ‘pot’ of matrimonial assets, divided between them as part of the divorce settlement.
A financial settlement can be reached with the help of the Courts or via mediation or negotiation between the parties. If you need advice in this particular area we offer a free initial telephone appointment to discuss your case. Visit our website for more information.
Disputes and Injunctions
Domestic abuse occurs across society. Domestic violence is any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (be it physical or emotional) between adults who are or have been in a relationship together, or between family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.
We can assist you in applying for an injunction. An injunction is a 'civil law order' which you can use to help keep you safe. It places legal restrictions on your partner to try to prevent or limit any further violence. It can be registered with the police.
We can also assist you in applying for/or responding to orders under the Children's Act (residence orders, contact orders, prohibited steps orders).
Unmarried couples
Unmarried couples have different legal rights and responsibilities in relation to property, finances and children from their married counterparts. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no such thing as a ‘common law’ husband or wife.
For those couples not getting married but setting up home together, a living together agreement can perform a similar function as a pre-nuptial agreement. A living together agreement provides the framework for couples to record their intentions and their respective contributions. This can help set aside any fears prior to living together, leaving them safe in the knowledge that if the relationship was to break down, they would be protected financially.
A mother automatically has parental responsibility for her children. That means she has certain rights to determine where the child lives, which schools they attend and how, when and if they access medical treatment.
A father only automatically has parental responsibility if he is married to the mother or the child was born after 1 December 2003 and he is named on the birth certificate. A father can obtain parental responsibility by:
- Marrying the child’s mother
- Entering into a voluntary Parental Responsibility Agreement with the mother
- Obtaining a Parental Responsibility Order from the court.
For advice on any of these matters, please contact us.
Civil Partnership
A civil partnership gives same sex couples the same legal rights as their married heterosexual counterparts – and so requires formal legal proceedings when the relationship breaks down, to end the legal agreement between the couple. To do this, one of the parties must file a petition with the court, requesting dissolution of the civil partnership. To obtain this , you must have been in a civil partnership for more than one year.
One person needs to start the ball rolling. They are known as the petitioner. This person is responsible for proving that the civil partnership has irretrievably broken down. They are required to complete a petition and the process then follows the same course as a divorce, typically taking between three and five months to complete; unless it is defended.
There are no hard and fast rules regarding your financial rights in the breakdown of a relationship. Matters can be settled by way of a Consent Order or a court hearing.
For advice on all matters relating to dissolving a Civil Partnership, please contact us.
Pre-Nuptial Contracts
Increasingly people are entering into pre-nuptial or pre-civil partnership agreements to regulate the division of assets in the event of divorce or dissolution. Although these are not binding on the Courts they are increasingly being enforce where they have been properly prepared by a Solicitor or other qualified person.
Contact us on 01707 621 100 for further information