Family Law Blog : Family law

This blog was written prior to the change in law in April 2022 which introduced no fault divorce. For advice on your personal circumstances take advantage of a free telephone appointment with one of our lawyers – book here. Since divorce was first introduced into English law in the time…

Law firms and barristers are bemoaning the changes in the profession – but firms should have adapted to this some time ago if they want to survive in the new legal landscape. We have mentioned many times in these blogs the effect Legal Aid changes are having on the industry….

An interesting debate has been hotting up over the last few weeks on the topic of fee-charging McKenzie friends in cases like divorce. It came after watchdog the Legal Services Consumer Panel published a report which calls for McKenzie Friends to be recognised as increasing access to justice and a “legitimate…

The range of questions divorce solicitors are asked quite mind-boggling – and they are not always related to the legal profession. However, there is a small band of them that come round time and time again. So I thought it might be useful to try and address some of the…

I happened upon an interesting discussion on Radio 5 Live the other day about the importance of checking the credentials of legal services you seek out online. The potential for bogus law practitioners making money out of the internet is the same as in any other sector: the unqualified builder…

Helping couples reach a non-confrontational solution to their separation should be right at the top of priorities for a family law specialist when taking on a new client. Our professional code of conduct dictates we should aim to do this and the practices of the “Rottweiler” lawyer have no place…

For the uniformed, divorce probably still means going to court to sort it all out. As family lawyers, we know that is far from being a realistic picture. I would estimate that around 95 per cent of the cases we deal with at Woolley & Co, Solicitors get to a…

One of the hardest things to agree on and manage when a family splits up is where the children will live and the contact they will have with the other parent. There has been a rise in the number of requests for one parent to move a child overseas. When…

The concept of a good divorce may at first seem contradictory. Divorce is not a good thing for anyone. It is the culmination of a relationship breakdown that is likely to involve moving house, starting a new life and relationships with children, family and friends changing dramatically. There is a…

Statistics can be made to prove or demonstrate many things. The same set of data can be manipulated in some cases to show opposing things. Just ask a politician. There was an interesting statistic that came out a few weeks ago which made me do a bit of digging to…

Well, it’s finally happened. Changes in the way Legal Aid funds family law cases came into effect at the start of April. Seems like we have been talking about them for ages and finally it is all change. In actual fact, there have been two significant developments stemming from the…

I hear from colleagues that the service they have been getting from family courts recently has been improving. Apparently many had experienced cases taking longer, instances of papers going astray and call centres replacing local court staff as Government rationalisation of the courts service kicked in. This was, of course,…