Family Matters

Children Act Proceedings
 

Whenever there is a dispute between parents regarding where children live, or the amount of time that they spend with the other parent, this can be dealt with by the Court in what are known as Children Act Proceedings.

We charge on a time spent basis and we charge at the rate of £200.00 per hour plus VAT. Letters, emails and telephone calls are charged at £20.00 each plus VAT. Your case will be dealt with by Richard Johnson who is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives with over 25 year’s experience in matters of this nature.

As every case is different it is difficult to give generalised cost estimates, but assuming that your case is not of great complexity then some indications of costs are as follows:

• The cost of issuing a non-urgent Children Act application including representation at a local Court will cost £600.00 plus VAT of £120.00 plus the Court fee which is currently £255.
                             .
• If matters are not resolved at the first hearing (very few cases are resolved at the first hearing) then the Court will then make some directions at the first hearing as to the future conduct of the case. This work is charged on a time spent basis, but if the matter is listed for another short hearing (1 hour) at a local Court then the cost of representing you at that hearing will be in the region of £400 plus VAT of £80.00. It is possible that the Court will direct the filing of statements or other documents, but we will give you indication of costs of future work once it is known what future steps need to be taken in your case. As a very approximate figure if your case proceeds to a fully contested Final Hearing then costs are likely to be in the region of £3,000.00 plus VAT of £600.00.
   
• Matters can be complicated by the following issues.

1. In cases involving allegations of domestic violence, which the Court decide to investigate further can involve what is known as a “fact finding” hearing. This can add substantially to the costs of the case as well as the timescale.
2. In some cases, it is necessary for the Court to direct testing for illicit drugs and/or excessive alcohol consumption. The cost or such testing is normally divided between the parties at first instance and can vary massively dependent upon how many drugs are being tested for.
    

How long will it take to resolve a dispute regarding children?

It is considered in the child’s best interest to resolve promptly any dispute relating to where they live or the time that they spend with one or both parents. The timescale is however dependent upon whether the Court determine it is a case for what is known has a Section 7 Report under the Children Act and or a fact finding is required or if drugs/alcohol testing is required. In a straightforward case, with no welfare concerns which proceeds to Final hearing after the initial hearing then it is likely to be concluded within the 6 months, but if there are complications proceedings could well take up to 18 months to be concluded.

 

 

Divorce/Dissolution
 

We can carry out a Divorce or Dissolution of Civil Partnership for a fixed fee of £500.00 plus VAT. There is also a Court fee, currently £593.00 to pay and therefore the cost of most divorces totals £1,193.00. There may be additional expenses in the following circumstances:

• If the marriage certificate is not in English, it will require a certified translation.
   
• If your spouse does not acknowledge receipt of the divorce papers it may be necessary to arrange for the papers to be personally served upon them.
   

How long will divorce take?

The timescale for divorce is largely governed by the statutory time limits. It is not possible to apply for the Conditional Order (formerly called Decree Nisi) until 20 weeks after the proceedings have been issued, and additionally it is not possible to apply for the Final Order (formerly Decree Absolute) until 6 weeks and 1 day after the Conditional Order has been granted. It also will take the Courts approximately 4 weeks to issue divorce proceedings and additionally it will take the Courts approximately 5 weeks to deal with the request for the Conditional Order. On this basis the divorce process is likely to take approximately 8 to 9 months.
 

What are the stages of divorce/dissolution.

The stages of divorce are as follows:

• Take your instructions and give you initial advice, we will follow this up with a client care letter summarising your instructions, the advice given along with timescales, cost estimates and complaints procedure etc. We will ask for a second copy of this letter to be signed by you and returned to ourselves along with your initial payment on account which will generally be £750.00 for a divorce/dissolution. We will also need either the original or a certified copy of the marriage/civil partnership certificate.
   
• Draft the divorce application via the online system and ask you to approve the draft.
   
• Request issue of proceedings via the online system, including confirming when this has been done and informing you when the Court issues your application along with the date when it will be possible to apply for the Conditional Order (formerly Decree Nisi).
   
• Contact you prior to the due date for the Conditional Order to confirm that you wish to proceed and if you do apply for the Conditional Order.
   
• Inform you of the Court date when the Conditional Order will be formerly “pronounced” at court, it is not necessary for any party to attend Court for this.
   
• Send you the Conditional Order once received from the Court, we will also send you our invoice at this stage.
   
• Contact you prior to the due date for the Final Order (Previously Decree Absolute) and assuming that you wish to proceed to apply for the Final Order (in some cases our advice may be to withhold applying the Final Order until financial matters linked to divorce have been resolved).
   
• Send you a copy of the Final Order of divorce.
   

Please note that all of the above costs and procedure only apply to the divorce/dissolution. In most divorce/dissolution cases there are financial matters which need to be resolved. Often these include the family home, possibly other properties, possibly other assets and investments. There may also be pensions to deal with and there could be maintenance i.e.  one party paying maintenance to the other party (over and above any child maintenance) every case is different, and we offer a bespoke service to each client.

 

Financial Matters linked to Divorce/Dissolution

We charge on a time spent basis and we charge a rate of £200.00 per hour plus VAT and letters, emails and telephone calls are charged at £20.00 each. This will all be dealt with by Richard Johnson who is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives with over 25 year’s experience in matters of this nature.
 

As every case is different it is difficult to give generalised cost estimates, but assuming that your case is not of great complexity then some indications of costs are as follows:
 

• The first step to resolve financial matters is mutual financial disclosure, and assuming this takes place it is generally followed by negotiation, and if those negotiations result in an agreement, it is generally advisable to embody the agreement in a Court order, possibly including Clean Break terms. The cost of doing this will be somewhere between £1,000.00 plus Vat and £2,500.00 plus VAT plus a Court fee which is currently £58.00.
   
• If agreement is not possible, or if the other party does not co-operate with the disclosure process, it may be necessary to issue a financial application within the divorce proceedings. The costs of getting matters up to and including the first hearing at Court are likely to be in the region of £2,500.00 plus the Court fee which is currently £303.00. By the first Court hearing the Court will have ordered both parties to provide disclosure to each other and to the Court and it may be possible to resolve matters at the first hearing, but more often than not the first hearing just deals with outstanding information such as missing disclosure or directing professional valuations of assets.
   
• The costs of getting matters to the second hearing at Court are likely to be in the region £5,000.00 plus VAT (this includes the cost of getting matters to the first hearing as above) plus the above-mentioned Court fee of £303.00. The second hearing is known as the Financial Dispute Resolution hearing and it does result in a lot of cases settling, although this cannot be guaranteed.
   
• If matters do not settle at the FDR hearing, then the costs of getting matters to a final hearing could well be between £10,000.00 plus VAT and £15,000.00 plus VAT.
   

The above are very generalised figures based on a relatively straightforward case. If your case involves multiple assets or multiple areas of disagreement the cost can increase massively.

 

How long will it take to resolve financial matters?
 

If it is possible to resolve matters by disclosure/negotiation/Consent Order then matters could be resolved in 6 months, but it is not uncommon for matters to take longer. For example, if one or both parties are slow in producing their financial disclosure and/or produce incomplete financial disclosure this can add to time. Additionally, if there are multiple properties or multiple arguments these will all increase the time it takes to resolve your matter.
 

If Court proceedings are required and matters settle at the first hearing then it is likely to be all concluded in within 8 months, but contested proceedings could easily take up to around 18 months.
 

What are the stages of resolving financial matters?

The precise stages involved in resolving financial matters will vary according to the circumstances of your case and we will advise on the most appropriate steps to be taken in your case along with costs and timescale applicable to your case.
 

Fixed fee advice on Family matters
 

It is not uncommon for people not to know where to start when dealing with a relationship breakdown. Hattersleys therefore offers an initial fixed fee appointment, of 1 hour duration the charge of £50.00 plus VAT of £10.00. At this appointment we can discuss your case and give initial advice including recommendations as to the next steps and the costs of those steps. We will not place any pressure upon you to proceed with matters.

Most people find these fixed fee appointments very useful; it is all too easy to receive “advice” from friends, relatives, and whilst that person may be trying to help, they will probably not have any legal qualifications!

We can normally offer the fixed fee appointments within 7-10 days; you are welcome to bring along a friend or relative for moral support.

 

Non-Molestation Orders/Occupation Orders
 

The Family Law Act 1996 gives the Court power to make both Non-Molestation Orders and Occupation Orders. Applications for these are normally made to the Court when there has been a history of domestic abuse. A Non-Molestation Order can impose certain prohibitions against the other party which can order them not to contact you by any means, not to damage your property and possibly to stay away from certain addresses such as your own address or workplace. Non-Molestation Orders are sometimes incorrectly referred to as “restraining orders”. Restraining orders are similar, but they are generally granted by the Criminal Courts instead of the Family Courts.
 

An Occupation Order can determine who lives in a property and moves out of that property, again this needs to be based a history of domestic abuse, and in the absence of domestic abuse a Court will not grant these orders even if the relationship or marriage between the parties have clearly broken down.

 

What is the cost of applying for Non-Molestation Order/ Occupation Order?
 

The first point to make is that legal aid is still readily available for application of this nature subject to you qualifying on a financial basis. Therefore, if you are in receipt of means tested benefits, we recommend that you contact a solicitor who deals with such matters on a legal aid basis. Hattersleys no longer deal with legal aid.
 

If legal aid is not an option, then the costs of getting an application from Non-Molestation Orders/Occupation issued and including the first hearing, assuming that is at a local Cout will be in the region of £1,000.00 plus VAT of £200.00. There is no Court fee payable on such an application, although it is often a requirement that any Order is personally served upon the respondent. We will engage an enquiry agent to personally serve papers on the respondent and the cost of this is £200.00 plus VAT.
 

A good proportion of these cases (especially if the application is just for a Non-Molestation Order) can be resolved at the first or second hearing at Court. If the opponent defends the application the case will have to proceed to a contested final hearing. Every case is different but the cost of dealing with matters up to and including the Final Hearing will be in the region of £3,000.00 plus VAT of £600.00.
 

Please note that Non-Molestation Order and Occupation Orders are of limited duration. The maximum duration is normally 12 months as they are designed to deal with short to medium term situations. They cannot deal with long term situations regarding property ownership, they must be dealt with either in divorce/dissolution proceedings, or in unmarried couple cases under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996.

Contact

Richard Johnson - rjohnson@hattersleys.co.uk - view profile