Frequently Asked Questions ' Family Law

• Published date: 03 October 2022
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Family and Matrimonial, Family Law, Arbitration & Dispute Resolution
• Law Firm: Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors
• Author: Mr Ian Walker

This section of the website endeavours to provide answers to frequently asked questions.

Below are the FAQs about family law.

The answers are necessarily general. They are information - and in some cases detailed information but they are not advice. Advice is something which is specific to you and your situation. We can only give advice as to the best options for your if we know a lot about your individual circumstances.

These FAQs can be a starting point in your journey to sort out difficulties. But the next step should be to arrange a meeting with one of our team of experts.

We are ready to help.

FAMILY LAW

Who is the best family law solicitor near me?

We have written about this at length in the context of divorce in a page on this site entitled The Best Divorce Lawyer for you .

Solicitors who solely undertake divorce work will unlikely be the best suited to a complex case concerning children.

Our team includes both divorce experts and experts in child law - both disputes between parents and in cases brought by social services.

When choosing the best family law solicitor for you it is important that you find someone who you can work with and someone who has the right experience for your case.

Costs are rarely not a factor. If you instruct someone who charges '350 plus VAT an hour - are you going to be able to afford their services for the entire case?

Is the person you are instructing actually going to do all the work? Or are they going to delegate to a junior colleague?

It is important to get a good cost estimate and clarity over how your case is going to be run.

As we have discussed in our article and in our charging pages: Payments , Our Fair Charging Policy the most expensive hourly is not the best measure to determining who is the best family law solicitor for you.

How to find a great family solicitor?

See the answer to the above question - who is the best family law solicitor near me?

I have built a strong team of experienced family law solicitors and divorce lawyers who I have known for many years. In my view they are all great. So please do give us a call....

Can I have a free consultation with a family law solicitor?

Some solicitors will offer a free consultation but be careful. When a solicitor gives advice they can in theory be subject to a claim for professional negligence - if the advice is incorrect. The solicitor will need to open a file and keep a record of both the discussion and the advice given. These actions will take up time and there will be a cost and risk for the solicitor. For the solicitor to be able to give good advice they will need as much information as possible and it would be unlikely for the solicitor to have all the information that they would need to give best advice and answer follow-up questions in a short and limited free consultation.

What normally happens is that the solicitor will not give advice - but instead will listen to the client explain the problem and then give some general information about the services that they can offer - without giving advice. If advice is required the solicitors charging clock will then go on and the client will be charged for the time spent giving advice.

We have a very full website and we provide lots of information on our website (but no advice) for FREE. We also have video clips of most of our solicitors on their profile pages so that you have a better feeling of what they are like before you meet them.

Because we provide so much free on our website we prefer to go straight to a proper meeting when we first meet with a client. This means that the meeting will be for one hour and we will give advice during the meeting. We will also send to you a copy of our attendance note.

This doesn't mean that we can give all the answers when we first meet - but we can and will be as helpful as we possibly can. For this we charge a discounted fee of '100 plus VAT.

You could view this as the first half-hour being free and the 2nd half-hour being paid for if that is an easier way to think about things. But we feel that charging a discounted/modest fee is the fair way of doing things.

We are very open about how we charge. All of our charging rates have always been published on our website. It is our understanding that our rates are lower than the firm's to whom we would wish to be compared. We have a very experienced team of family lawyers and we should have a team member who has the specialism to help you.

Details of how we charge are at https://familylawandmediation.co.uk/payments-2/

Who are the cheapest family solicitors near me?

See the answer to the above question - who is the best family law solicitor near me? See also Our Fair Charging Policy, Charges.

Ultimately you will only know what your costs are at the end of the case. Therefore, what is going to be the biggest factor in determining your costs is whether your chosen solicitor is able to resolve the case in a satisfactory way in a relatively short timescale. Often, an early solution requires finding a compromise acceptable to both sides. Alternatively, decisive action.

Hourly rates are an indicator - but if you instruct someone who charges a low hourly rate - but who is unable to settle your case - you may well end up with more costs than if you had instructed someone with a more expensive hourly rate - but who was able to achieve a sensible solution relatively quickly.

We would like to think that we have struck a good balance between competitive and affordable charging rates and expertise. We would not claim to be the cheapest and we are certainly not the most expensive - but hopefully are combination of substantial experience and competitive charging rates is the right combination.

Do I need a family law solicitor?

If you are asking this question - then you probably do need to speak to a family law solicitor.

A good initial meeting with a family solicitor will assist you to understand the issues and options and the costs of these options.

Whether you then go on to instruct the family law solicitor to do all the work for you is a different question. But by obtaining good and clear advice at an early stage you are able to make informed decisions.

We do not offer a free half an hour meeting - because we do not think that half an hour is long enough to go through the problem thoroughly (obtaining all the information that we need) and then to give advice. A free half an hour meeting is likely to be quite superficial. We offer a full one hour meeting - but charged for this at a discounted rate of '100 plus VAT.

Do I need a prenuptial agreement?

Everyone's situation is slightly different, and there is also a question of personal preference.

We suggest that you make an appointment to come and see us to discuss your particular circumstances and the pros and cons of having a prenuptial agreement.

For older couples, perhaps entering into a second marriage, with older children, a prenuptial agreement may be a very sensible idea. A prenuptial agreement deals with what would happen on divorce. Reviewing the arrangements in a will at the time of preparing a prenuptial agreement (and subsequently keeping that under review as well) is also sensible.

Will a prenuptial agreement be binding?

Entering into a prenuptial agreement should be viewed as a process rather than simply signing a contract.

A prenuptial agreement has strong evidential value at the time of the divorce.

If the prenuptial agreement was prepared in the right way, with it being clear that there was financial disclosure and if it was clear that both parties had freely made the informed decision to enter into a sensible agreement - then it is likely to be upheld.

However, as a matter of law, the court at the time of the divorce will wish to ensure that there is fairness and in particular that the needs of the parties and of minor children are met. A prenuptial agreement can be reviewed regularly after the marriage and can be replaced by a post nuptial agreement. Essentially the same type of agreement - but entered into after the marriage has taken place.

If an agreement is entered into by young couple, without children, and perhaps at the time with no plans to have children - if this is not reviewed if they subsequently have a family, the weight of the prenuptial agreement will be significantly diminished.

Does there have to be a court order about my children?

The primary law about the arrangements for children is the Children Act 1989. Within this is the no order principle.

The no order principle is that the court should not make an order unless it is in a child's best interest to do so.

The underlying principle and expectation is that parents will work together in a...