Family Law Blog : Family law

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,…

I was on a stag do the other week (yes, divorce solicitors do still get invited to weddings and the associated festivities) and I was chatting to a chap who was convinced that the only thing solicitors wanted to do in divorce cases was go to court. He was absolutely…

What is a proper family? Traditionally, the definition appears to have been married heterosexual parents with two or more children. I am not sure I would necessarily agree that is exactly right, but it will do for now. But where does that sit in 21st Century society? A new survey…

A little while ago a client came to me stating that he wanted a “Rottweiler” of a solicitor and I found this approach very strange indeed. As someone who was attacked when riding my bike home from work one night by a vicious Doberman (that looked like a Rottweiler) and…