Prenuptial Agreements

No, we tend to steer clear of free half-hour initial appointments. By the time we have taken your details and a little more, the appointment would be over. You would walk out of our office without anything but the most basic advice. Chances are, it wouldn’t even be specific to your case.

We believe that we can only really give you specific advice and information if we have longer with you. Firms that offer a free half-hour appointment are often using it to hook new clients. Their second longer appointment, charged at full price, will need to be paid before they give you any meaningful advice.

We understand that knowing what your costs are going to be is an important factor for you. You want to know what you’re going to get charged. And we want to be transparent with you. So we offer fixed fees for divorce / civil partnership dissolution.

We can also agree on a fixed fee for the preparation of a Separation Agreement, Financial Consent Order or Pre-Marital Agreement once we know what the issues to be covered are. With other matters, fixed fees are a lot harder to agree. This is particularly the situation with financial negotiations or disputes about children. We will however breakdown your likely costs down into stages. And we’ll tell you how much each individual stage is likely to cost before you embark on it. We’ll send you regular bills and update estimates where appropriate. This ensures that you have the best information available to help you understand and budget for your costs.

There have been significant changes to the availability of legal aid for family matters, however, it can still be available when dealing with some aspect of family law, if you can prove your status as a victim of domestic violence or if Social Services have concerns about the safety of your children.

In order to prove your eligibility, there are a number of standard letters provided by the Legal Aid Agency which can assist you. Please click the link below to see what evidence will be accepted by the Legal Aid Agency. You cannot apply for legal aid without an ‘evidence letter’ if you are seeking assistance with divorce or children matters. Should you be seeking legal aid in relation to protection from domestic violence an ‘evidence letter’ will not be necessary.

Useful links

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-cases-of-domestic-violence-and-child-abuse-letters-for-professionals

As well as the above evidence, you will need to be assessed as financially eligible for legal aid. Please use the online eligibility calculator to give you an indication as to whether you may be financially eligible. This will assist you in knowing whether legal aid may be an option.

https://civil-eligibility-calculator.justice.gov.uk/

Once you have obtained one of the standard ‘evidence letters’ from a professional, and have checked your financial eligibility, please give us a call to discuss making an appointment.

If intending to issue an application to Court for an Order relating to children or an Order relating to matrimonial finances there is an expectation that you will have attempted mediation before your application can be issued at Court. There are limited exceptions where attendance at mediation is not necessary, however in most cases it will be necessary to attend at least a first mediation meeting, known as a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM).

As a rule of thumb a divorce can take between 4 and 6 months from the date that the petition is lodged with the Court but it very much depends upon the complexity of the issues and how much co-operation there is between the parties.

We do work towards bringing about a conclusion as soon as possible for our clients as we recognise that it is an incredibly difficult time for them. However, each case will turn on its individual facts and it is difficult to know how long a divorce will take before the particular circumstances of the case are known. We recommend that anyone considering divorce makes an appointment with one of our specialist solicitors to come to the office to discuss matters where a time estimate can then be provided.

It is not always the position that family home will have to be sold following separation but this will depend upon the financial circumstances of the parties.

It is very uncommon for both parties to remain living in the same property following separation and so, it would seem fairly inevitable that one of the parties will have to move from the property but this does not necessarily mean that the property will have to be sold.

In cases involving children, as long as it is financially possible, every effort is made to ensure that children do remain in their home to provide stability and security for them at what is, for the whole family, a very difficult time.

We recommend that anyone concerned about what would happen to their property following separation makes an appointment to come in and meet with one of our specialist solicitors for further detailed advice.