Family Law
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Family Law Barristers
The Barristers of St Pauls Chambers’ Family Department are recognised legal experts specialising in all forms of financial and children related matters. Members of St Pauls have successfully and consistently represented individuals, local authorities and guardians in numerous high profile child care and high net worth financial remedy cases.
Family Department Barristers at St Pauls Chambers regularly advise on pre and post proceedings, and appear in, highly complex and high net worth financial remedy cases, high profile child care cases involving multiple medical experts and the gravest of allegations, financial injunctions of the utmost urgency, highly technical TOLATA and proprietary estoppel cases and intractably entrenched private children matters.
A feature of the Family Department is that, within its broad base, there are a considerable number of individuals who are specialists in niche areas. These include; trusts, court of protection, inheritance act claims, schedule 1 claims, surrogacy, pre and post nuptial agreements, multi-jurisdictional cases and abduction. A number of members of chambers have extensive experience conducting sexual cases, both in the family court and the crown court. Such cases, and especially trials, require meticulous preparation, commitment and attention to detail and our barristers are well versed in managing document heavy and multiple expert cases.
Members’ expertise extends to all types of family related matters and therefore many members also have cross expertise in civil and/or criminal proceedings. St Pauls Chambers are repeatedly ranked as a ‘leading set’ by the definitive independent guide to the UK profession (Chambers and Partners). Many of our barristers also feature year on year in the highly esteemed The Legal 500 directory.
Those wishing to instruct counsel are encouraged to contact our clerking team who will be happy to assist and offer advice; further information is of course also available on our individual counsel profiles, copies of which can be downloaded for your convenience.
Financial Disputes
The family law lawyers at St Pauls have extensive experience acting for both men and women following the breakdown of a marriage or relationship. Our family barristers regularly deal with cases in both the County and High Courts involving disputed property ownership, injunctions, jurisdiction issues, trusts, valuation of private companies, and pensions. St Pauls handle cases with values ranging from modest amounts to many millions.
- Ancillary Relief: Not all cases are suitable for mediation or the collaborative process. If a case is to go to trial it is important to ensure that you have the best family barrister to advise on tactics, evidence, litigation risks and to represent your case at the final hearing.
- Private Dispute Resolution: Since April 2010 couples have been able to instruct a specialist barrister directly to advise them jointly. Whilst the advice cannot bind either party and the barrister could not go on to represent either individual both parties have the advantage of an early and neutral opinion from a specialist with years of experience of the outcomes achievable through the court process.
- Pre-nuptial Agreements: Members of the Family Team have a sound commercial understanding of the practical issues arising out of pre-nuptial agreements. Our Barristers combine a pragmatic approach with a sound and thorough understanding of this fast moving area of family law.
- Inheritance Act: Our family law barristers act and advise in cases on behalf of spouses, former spouses, civil partners, cohabitants and children (including adult children and other dependants).
- Trusts: We have expert family lawyers at all levels who have the expertise to deal with relatively straightforward cases involving discretionary trusts, as well as more complex corporate arrangements where it is necessary to seek orders to extract assets from trust structures.
Arbitration is a form of dispute resolution. The parties enter into an agreement under which they appoint a suitably qualified person (an “arbitrator”) to adjudicate a dispute and make an award. The scheme covers: financial disputes arising from divorce; claims on inheritance from a child, spouse, etc; financial claims made in England and Wales after a divorce abroad; claims for child maintenance between unmarried parents; disputes about ownership of a property between cohabiting couples and civil partnership financial claims. Disputes will be resolved exclusively by applying the laws of this country, in the same way as the Family Courts.
Collaborative Law
Collaborative law differs from mediation because each person appoints their own specialist lawyer . The parties and their lawyers commit to a “participation agreement” and work together in face to face four way meetings to achieve a settlement of the case. Within that process the lawyers and the separating couple commit to working as a team. The specialist divorce barristers at St Pauls are able to assist that team.
