Family Law Blog

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…

As an experienced family solicitor, I have long been aware of the devastating impact divorce and separation can have on children, yet I was still particularly horrified to read recently the statistics from a poll undertaken on behalf of another firm of solicitors. Most alarming to me was the revelation…

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…

It has been a phenomenon that we have definitely seen at Woolley & Co but I have wondered what is behind it. There are more over-50s, an age group perhaps we would expect to be less comfortable with divorce if only for historical reasons when it was less commonplace, filing…

I listened with interest to a debate on You and Yours on Radio 4 on Tuesday about divorce and separation. The wide-ranging item ably covered a full deck of topics, from children’s rights and a review of the current guidelines by Sir Nicholas Wall, to collaborative law and mediation. It…

Forced marriages is something of a hidden crime but in the UK between 2011 and 2018 there were on average 1,359 forced marriages reported every year.  Victims are often below the age of 18 and include males as well as females forced into marriage against their will. This is however…