Family law solicitors in Lichfield

Very few people ring a family solicitor on impulse. Most have been turning it over for a long time, reading things online late at night, and getting a slightly different answer every time. Some have been told confidently by a friend or a relative how these things work, and quite a lot of what they have been told is wrong.

So the first job is usually not legal at all. It is separating what is actually likely to happen from what you have been dreading, or hoping, or half-remembering from somebody else's divorce fifteen years ago. Those are rarely the same thing.

We advise on divorce and separation, financial settlements, arrangements for children, disputes between couples who never married and agreements made before or during a marriage. We act for people across Lichfield and the villages around it, including Burntwood, Shenstone, Whittington, Alrewas, Fradley, Armitage and over towards Tamworth.

Bring the questions you feel silly asking. Those are usually the useful ones.

Divorce and separation

Nobody has to prove the other one was at fault any more, and nobody can contest a divorce simply because they would rather stay married. The application runs through the national online service, and a straightforward divorce usually takes at least seven to eight months from start to final order. The important thing to understand is that a divorce ends a marriage and nothing else. It does not divide your money, and it does not stop a former spouse making a financial claim years later. That takes a separate order. More on divorce and separation.

Financial settlements

Usually the part that decides how the next decade of your life looks. The house, the mortgage, pensions, savings and debts, and for a fair number of Lichfield clients a business or a share in one. Lichfield has a high proportion of owner-occupiers and long-service professionals, which in practice means larger pension pots and more equity than in many neighbouring towns. Both need valuing properly. A settlement that ignores a pension can be a very expensive mistake to discover at sixty. More on financial settlements.

Arrangements for children

Where the children live, when they see each parent, holidays and Christmas, schools and what happens if one parent wants to move away. The courts start from the position that children usually benefit from a relationship with both parents, and from a strong preference for parents sorting it out themselves. We help you do that, and only turn to the court where agreement genuinely is not possible. More on arrangements for children.

Separating when you were not married

Living together for twenty years gives you no automatic claim on your partner's property, and no right to maintenance for yourself. The phrase common law wife has no legal meaning in England and Wales and never has. What you may have is a claim based on contributions or on what was agreed between you, and a possible claim on behalf of any children. It is a harder area of law than divorce and the outcomes are less predictable, which is exactly why advice early is worth more here than almost anywhere else. More on separating from an unmarried partner.

Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements

Most often taken out by people marrying for a second time, protecting an inheritance or bringing a family business into a marriage. They are not automatically binding here, but a court will normally uphold one that was properly made, with both sides independently advised, full financial disclosure on each side, and signed well before the wedding. Leaving it to the last fortnight is the most common way to weaken one. More on prenuptial and post-nuptial agreements.

St Mary's Chambers has been our head office for a long time and it is where the largest part of the firm sits. Breadmarket Street is a two minute walk from the market square, the city centre car parks are close, and Lichfield City station is about ten minutes on foot. Clients come to us from across the district, particularly Burntwood, Shenstone, Whittington, Alrewas, Fradley and Armitage, with a steady number from Tamworth. Opening hours, directions and the people based there are on the page for our Lichfield office.

Lichfield has a particular shape to its family work. It is a city of long marriages, high owner-occupation and a lot of people who have worked for the same employer or run the same business for decades. That tends to produce settlements where the pension is the biggest single asset on the table, and where one party has a much clearer picture of the finances than the other.

The transfer value printed on an annual statement is not what a defined benefit pension is worth, and in a long marriage the gap between the two can run well into six figures. A settlement that splits the house evenly and leaves the pensions where they are can look fair on the day and turn out to have been badly one-sided by the time both people retire. Where the pensions are substantial, an actuarial report is money well spent.

It is also worth knowing that a divorce application itself no longer goes to a local court. It is handled centrally through the national online service and needs no hearing unless something is disputed. What can require a hearing is a dispute about money or about children, and even then most are resolved by agreement long before that point.