There can be times in all of our family lives when we need help from legal experts. Our family law solicitors can support you with any issue you face, from making a pre or post-nuptial agreement through to dealing with your finances after a divorce.

Call us on 0345 604 4911 or contact us online for a confidential chat about your case.

What Can We Help With?

Our family lawyers can help in a range of situations, including:

Unmarried Couples

Living together – there’s no such thing as a “common law marriage”. If you’re unmarried and living together or planning to do so, we can draft a cohabitation agreement to protect you if your relationship breaks down.
Prenuptial agreements – if you’re planning to get married but want to agree beforehand how your property and financial assets would be split if you were to divorce.
New relationships – we can help you protect your children’s inheritance.

Relationship Breakdown

Divorce and civil partnership dissolution – we’ll guide you through the legal process, while protecting your interests to achieve a fair financial settlement.
Separation – if you’re separated but aren’t ready or don’t want to divorce, we can help draft a separation agreement.

Children

Adoption or surrogacy – we’ll help you negotiate the legal process of securing legal parenthood, as well as other legal issues around adoption and surrogacy.
Child arrangements following divorce – we can negotiate arrangements such as the time children spend with each parent, where they go to school and what child maintenance should be paid. We can also assist step-parents and grandparents to secure contact with a child.
Child abduction or relocation – if your former partner has taken your child, we could help you get them back. If you or your former partner wants to move to another country with your children, we can assist.

Many of these issues can be extra complicated for people in later life - read about how our Planning For Later Life Relationships Package can help if you're an older person starting a new relationship

Who Can We Help?

Our family law solicitors have particular expertise supporting:

High net worth individuals
Individuals who are in the public eye, such as professional sportspeople or media personalities
Business owners, or people who have business interests
People who have internationally held assets, or where a partner lives or works overseas.

We have a proven track record in complex cases. You can rely on us to get you a fair outcome, while being sensitive to your privacy and the need to keep things as amicable as possible.

Why Choose Our Family Lawyers?

Our Family Law team is based across England, operating out of a nationwide network of offices.

We’ve helped thousands of clients negotiate family law issues. So we understand what you’re going through and can guide you through the process, giving you advice you can trust.

It's because of this that independent legal guides Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 recognise us as having one of the UK's leading family law teams.

Whatever your legal needs, our family lawyers will support you and fight to protect your best interests. Our team includes expert negotiators, able to help you to find an agreement that suits everyone, keeping disputes out of court where possible.

If your case does have to go to court, we will be by your side every step of the way. We have experience of taking cases all the way to the Supreme Court if needed, so you can trust that we have the expertise needed to get the best outcome for you.

No situation is exactly the same. We’ll take the time to understand your case and tailor our service to your specific needs, while also providing a clear cost breakdown, step by step.

Legal 500 is the UK's leading independent survey into lawyers and law firms. They praise our family law team for having "...real strength in depth with a large team and a number of very qualified and capable lawyers. The client care is excellent. The lawyers provide realistic and accurate quotes and keep you updated throughout the matter." - Legal 500, 2023.

Chambers & Partners, the leading source of independent legal market intelligence for over 30 years, says that our family law team has "…strength in depth and talent at every level." - Chambers & Partners, 2023.

Mediation Support Service – Free 30-Minute Consultation

Family mediation can be a less confrontational and more cost-effective way to resolve a dispute. We offer a free 30-minute consultation with one of our solicitors to discuss your situation and if mediation is right for you.

If you decide to go ahead with mediation, you can benefit from our cost effective mediation support service. This service will give you the advice, support and tools to get the best possible outcome – particularly if you’re representing yourself.

Call us on 0345 604 4911 or contact us online to book your free 30-minute consultation today.

Contact Us

For a consultation with one of our family law solicitors, call us on 0345 604 4911, or contact us online and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

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What Are My Options For Divorce?

If you wish to divorce your partner, there are a range of options that can secure a divorce without going to court. These include:

Collaborative divorce
Mediation
Arbitration
Negotiation

Collaborative divorce means you and your partner work together to settle the terms of your divorce in the presence of legal representatives. If you still have an amicable relationship and are able to co-operate, this can be a quick and less stressful way to agree financial matters and child access arrangements.

Mediation involves a third party acting as an intermediary between you and your partner, guiding discussions and helping you to reach an agreement about your divorce.

It can take different forms and does not necessarily mean you and your partner have to be in the same room. Mediation can often help establish a respectful and civilised relationship - especially beneficial if there are children involved.

Negotiations can take place between your solicitor and your partner’s solicitor to try to reach an agreement without court proceedings being started.

There are two important things to remember when you consider the above services: typically, each of these services will be cheaper and quicker at resolving your issues than going to court, and if you try any of these services and they do not provide a satisfactory result to you or your partner, you can still take your case to court.

Arbitration can now be used for matters involving children as well as for financial matters. It can be a good solution for keeping a case out of court. A legal-specialist third party is nominated to consider submissions from your legal team and your partners, before deciding on the terms of the divorce.

It is very unusual for a court not to uphold an arbitrator’s decision so unlike other forms of our of court process, you should expect to be bound by the decision of a third party rather than reaching your own agreement. It is usually quicker and more flexible than going to court.

Our expert legal team are highly experienced in representing people in mediation, arbitration and collaborative divorces, as well as in court-led divorces. They are highly skilled negotiators and can also act as mediators or arbitrators in these processes.

To find out more about these options and how we can help, call us on 0345 604 4911, or contact us online and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

I live in Scotland, can Irwin Mitchell help me?

Our expert family law team works with a number of trusted partners to help our clients with family law issues in Scotland.

We’ll be your point of contact and manage the entire process for you throughout. You’ll get frequent progress updates and we’ll break down any legal jargon into plain English so you’re always in the loop.

To find out more about how we can help, give us a call on 0345 604 4911 or contact us online.

Why Choose Irwin Mitchell?

With decades of experience in family law, choosing us means choosing experts in the field who are committed to getting you the best possible outcome, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

We'll talk through every option you have for your divorce, and advise you on what your best options may be. We want to secure the right outcomes for our clients, not prolong cases unnecessarily.

Independent legal guides Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners have declared us one of the UK's leading family law teams, and in 2016 we were shortlisted for the 'Family Team of the Year' award at the Solicitors Journal Awards.

Although we have an extensive network of UK offices and consider ourselves a national law firm, we pride ourselves on delivering a personal, one-to-one service, tailored to your needs, wherever you are based. That includes mediation, arbitration and collaborative law services, while we can also provide access to counselling services if you need them.

Our team is here to help you in any way it can, so please call us today on 0345 604 4911, or contact us online, for an initial consultation on your case.

What Recent Cases Have You Been Involved In?

Our specialist family law solicitors have decades of experience, leading you through every stage of the legal process and explaining what is happening and what to expect. We have considerable expertise in complex, high-profile divorce cases, including:

Successfully representing two women in the Supreme Court whose husbands had been dishonest about their wealth during the initial divorce proceedings. This 2015 case was the first time in a generation that the UK's highest court has heard cases on the issue of non-disclosure in divorce proceedings – find out more about these cases.
Winning a legal battle in the Court of Appeal in 2016 for a woman who discovered her deceased partner had hidden millions of pounds of assets during the breakdown of their civil partnership – find out more about the case.

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Family Law Solicitors

What Can We Help With?

Who Can We Help?

Why Choose Our Family Lawyers?

Mediation Support Service – Free 30-Minute Consultation

Contact Us

Call today for more information

Our Teams

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are My Options For Divorce?

I live in Scotland, can Irwin Mitchell help me?

Why Choose Irwin Mitchell?

What Recent Cases Have You Been Involved In?

About Irwin Mitchell

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Family Law Solicitors

What Can We Help With?

Who Can We Help?

Why Choose Our Family Lawyers?

Mediation Support Service – Free 30-Minute Consultation

Contact Us

Call today for more information

Our Teams

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are My Options For Divorce?

I live in Scotland, can Irwin Mitchell help me?

Why Choose Irwin Mitchell?

What Recent Cases Have You Been Involved In?

Related Information - Family Law

About Irwin Mitchell

Contact Us

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