Today has been unofficially dubbed ‘divorce day’ by family lawyers, as they experience a spike in enquiries from couples where the Christmas period has proven to be the breaking point in relationships.
By lunchtime today we had received our first pensions and divorce enquiry of the month. We expect to hear from many more people getting divorced and needing advice on their pension options before the end of January.
We understand it is common for January to herald at least twice the number of divorce enquiries for solicitors as any other month of the year.
Whilst divorce is never an easy experience, it is possible to reduce the stress and cost associated with the dissolution of a marriage.
We encourage clients who are seeking a divorce to explore a collaborative approach instead of using the traditional adversarial legal route.
The collaborative family law process involves each party appointing their own lawyer and then working things out on a face to face basis. The aim of this approach is to avoid going to court to reach a settlement.
Whilst collaborative family law has been practised in the UK for less than a decade, it is becoming an increasingly popular way of reaching agreement following a separation. Collaborative family law is common practice in the US and Canada.
There is a more detailed explanation of how the collaborative family law process works on the Resolution website here.
We work with a number of collaborative family lawyers, as well as traditional divorce lawyers. Do speak to us if you would like an introduction.
It always makes sense to start considering the financial aspects of a divorce at an early stage. In our experience, too many divorcing couples leave it too late to engage with an independent financial adviser.
There is nothing worse than being introduced to someone going through the divorce process once the financials have been agreed and it is often too late for us to help one or both parties to reach a more suitable settlement.
Photo credit: Flickr/heydrienne
