Family and children
After separating from your ex-partner, dealing with issues relating to children can be difficult and upsetting. Sometimes exes use their upset with the situation to stop you seeing your children. Sometimes vindictive or abusive partners try to use the children as a way to get back at you. No matter what your circumstances, we can help!
We have a considerable experience in dealing with all aspects of family and children law. We can help you resolve your dispute with your ex-partner to act in the children's best interests. And if your ex-partner refuses to be reasonable, we can get the case heard before an impartial family court judge to get you a court order so that you can keep your relationship with your children. See below for more information.
If you are married to your ex-partner and also need to consider divorce, this is a separate service and we have a page where you can read more about that here.
Please see below for a summary of what is involved in case involving family and children, but if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
What are the steps in this type of case?
1. Mediation assessment
What's involved?
If you and your ex-partner are unable to reach an agreement over arrangements for the children, you will need to get the matter before the court so a judge can make a decision.
The first step is to go to a compulsory mediation assessment meeting (unless there are allegations of Domestic Violence involved or other exemptions).
You need to find an accredited family mediator and attend a mediation session where the mediator can help see if there really is an agreement you can reach. Trained mediators can often help both parties to make sure their voices are heard and also help break down disagreements. Once you have attended the first meeting, you are not required to carry on with mediation, although that is often encouraged.
An advantage of an agreement reached at mediation is that it can be whatever you and your ex-partner agree. Judges in court can tend to be more restrictive in the sorts of arrangements that they will order, but at a mediation there is no judge so it's open to you to agree anything.
If you require help in arranging mediation, we will firstly advise you on whether any of the exemptions apply, and secondly find a mediator in your area and help to book a session.
How long does it take?
If the exemptions apply and you do not need to attend mediation, then this step is missed out altogether and will not take any time. Otherwise, it usually takes around two weeks to find a mediator and book a session.
What will it cost?
You may be eligible for legal aid. If this applied to you we would advise you of this. We would put you in touch with a provider who offers legal aid (we only deal with legal aid for clients who have a different solicitor and just use us for representing you in the court hearings).
Our cost for advising and assisting you with this stage comes to £140 including VAT. The mediator's fees usually come to around anther £150, but it varies from mediator to mediator - they all set their own fees.
2. The application to court
What's involved?
If you are exempted from mediation, or if you attend mediation and get nowhere, the next step is the application to the court.
This sets out what it is you would like the court to arrange for your children. If there are issues of harm to the children or domestic violence, you may also need a witness statement to be provided to tell the court what those issues are, but in many cases this is not necessary.
Once the paperwork is sent to the court, the court will decide where the case hearings will be. This is usually a court near to where the children live and in most cases it will be a court where there is either a District Judge (who is a professional lawyer who makes decision on his or her own) or three Magistrates sitting with a legal adviser (the Magistrates being non-lawyers who have had training on family law cases).
The court will notify us as to the decision of where hearings will take place and advise when the first hearing will be. In the meantime they will send the court papers to an organisation called Cafcass who checks the background of the family to see if the parents have criminal records or if social services have ever been involved with the children. It is usual for Cafcass to phone and speak to both parents. Cafcass will write a letter so the judge or magistrates at the first hearing have information about the checks that have taken place.
How long does it take?
We will complete the form (and witness statement if necessary) in a couple of working days and submit it to court.
For the court to serve your ex-partner with the papers, decide where the court hearings will take place (i.e. which court building), and contact Cafcass, you can expect to wait around one month. The first court hearing will be around that time.
What will it cost?
To complete the forms to the court our charge is £240 including VAT. There is a court fee to pay of £232 (can be reduced if you have a low income). If we need to prepare a witness statement, our charge is a further £240. If you are eligible for legal aid, we would put you in touch with a provider who offers legal aid.
3. First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment.
What's involved?
The first hearing at court is called a "First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment" of "FHDRA" (which lawyers pronounce as a word like 'fidra').
The court will expect you and your ex-partner to attend and to try to see if there is any way you can either agree with each other what should happen, or at the very least see if there are some things you agree on even if you still don't agree everything.
The court will read the Cafcass letter and decide what information is needed before a final decision can be made. From this point on, every case is different. Some cases settle at this hearing. Some cases, where there are allegations of harm to the children or domestic violence, require further investigation to be done. Police records may need to be obtained and the court may need to hold a special hearing (called a "finding of fact") to get evidence as to what happened in the relationship before or after you split up. Cafcass or social services may be asked to do a more detailed investigation and report back to the court. What happens is really up to the judge or magistrates.
How long does it take?
If an agreement is reached at the First Hearing, then that is the end of the matter so long as the court is satisfied what you agree is in the children's best interests.
If agreement is not reached, how long the case may take is dependent on your particular circumstances. Each case is different. Some cases may take three months to be resolved an complex cases can take as long as 18 months (although that is rare). We will explain what is likely to happen and how long it is likely to take once we get more information - usually on the day of the hearing.
What will it cost?
Our charge for representing you at the first hearing is £600 in most areas of the country (but may be a little more if your case is heard in some towns where we need to ask a local barrister to attend on our behalf). If you were eligible for legal aid, we can represent you at the hearing, but you would need a solicitor to deal with all the other parts of your case that don't involve court hearing. We would put you in touch with a provider who can offer this.
4. Further hearings
What's involved?
If the case does not reach an agreement after the first hearing, then further court hearings will be necessary. Additional work such as obtaining witness statements and records may also need to be done.
In almost all cases, whilst this is going on the court will make an "interim" decision, which is a temporary arrangement for where and when the children can spend time with each parent and with whom the children will live.
As each case is different, it isn't possible to say what would need to be done. But an "average" case, if there is such a thing, may require three further hearings. Don't expect this to apply to you - it probably won't as some people have only one more hearing and some people can have five. If you assume it may take three hearings, it can give you a rough idea of what may be involved.
How long does it take?
As a general rule, there is a two month wait for hearings. Not every case is the same - some go more quickly and some take longer.
If your case needed three hearings, you can expect it to take six more months after the first hearing before a judge or the magistrates makes a decision.
What will it cost?
Again, it isn't possible to give a fixed idea of what the costs would be.
But in an average case of three hearings, with some records needing to be obtained and two witness statements, you can expect our charges would come to somewhere in the region of £5,000
What to do now?
If you'd like to discuss the services we offer, and how we can help, please contact us. There's no charge for making an enquiry and the quicker you contact us, the quicker we may be able to help!
An indication of the steps involved, and the fees that we would charge if you were our client is set out on this page above. Please note that the charges listed are intended to cover the most common types of case that we see. If you came to us with an out of the ordinary case, it could be that we would not be able to act for your for the fees set out above. However, we would discuss this with you first, and you would have the opportunity to decide whether you wished to go ahead or not. Fees set out above are not fixed price quotes. They include VAT but any fees that are charges by third parties (such as the court) are subject to change, and the amount you need to pay is the whatever they charge when you instruct us to proceed.
In some cases and in some situations a court may order you to pay costs to the "other side" in a case. Usually (but not always) this happens if you "lose" your case and the other side "wins", or sometimes if a settlement offer is made it can happen if you don't take the settlement but a judge later thinks you should have done. These costs would be broadly similar to the costs you incur, but are often higher as our costs tend to be lower as we work more efficiently for you and aim to keep our costs low. They are not included in the breakdowns above.
Whilst we're happy to talk through what we can do to help, we won't be able to give legal advice until you formally become our client and you have signed the Client Care Pack we will send to you.
We can offer help in a number of different way, whether that's from just providing you with written advice, helping with one step or stage of your case, or handling the whole case for you from start to finish. We will help in whatever way best suits you!