For You and Your Family
Dealing with the breakdown of a marriage is never easy, but it is essential that the process is handled with care and diligence to ensure that you come out with the best possible foundation for moving forward. Working with an experienced team of divorce lawyers can make all the difference.
At BakerLaw, we help clients through this difficult time with an effective mix of sensitivity to your needs and a real determination to get you the best possible result. By offering clear, sensible legal advice on your rights and options, we can help make dealing with the end of your relationship simpler and less stressful, while ensuring you secure the outcome you need.
Our local divorce solicitors in Farnham can help you with matters including:
We regularly advise families from all walks of life, with particular expertise in financial settlements involving high value assets, Armed Forces personnel personnel and complex child arrangements. One of our Family Associates, Wendy Armstrong , regularly works with Armed Forces personnel across all areas of family law, including divorce and separation.
With a strong emphasis on avoiding unnecessary conflict, we can typically deal with every aspect of your divorce without the need for court proceedings. This can make the whole process much less stressful, as well as faster and less costly. It can also help prevent your relationship from deteriorating further, which is particularly important when children are involved.
For help with divorce and separation from expert divorce lawyers in Farnham, please contact our Family Team on 01252 733770 or email us at enquiries@baker-law.co.uk.
To more information on our solicitors for divorce, see our Family Law team page.
We can represent you through the entire divorce process, advising you of the issues to be dealt with alongside your divorce, such as the division of property and arrangements for children.
It is often advisable to ensure you have agreements in respect of these matters in place before you finalise a divorce and we can discuss with you the best way to proceed.
We can also guide you through the steps to apply for a divorce, ensuring you have the support you need and that we are available to answer your questions as they arise.
It is important to deal with the financial side of your separation and divorce and to have a binding court order in place dealing with your property and other assets. Without this, there is a risk that your former spouse could make a claim against you long into the future.
Wherever possible, we try to help clients make financial arrangements without the need to go to court. We will negotiate on your behalf and if necessary, we can represent you through mediation to try and find an acceptable solution.
Once an agreement has been reached, we will ask the court to approve it and seal it into a consent order, making it legally binding.
If a court hearing is necessary, we will prepare a strong case on your behalf and ensure you are represented by an expert in divorce financial settlements.
If you have children, one of your main concerns is likely to be making the right arrangements for them for the future. Our Family Team has in-depth experience in dealing with matters relating to children in divorce, including in complex and contested cases.
We will discuss the possible options open to you and represent you in trying to agree with your former spouse or partner where your children will live and how much time they will spend with each of you.
In the event that an agreement cannot be reached by way of negotiation, it is usually a requirement of the court that you consider mediation. We will arrange for you to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting where the mediation process will be explained to you.
If you decide to go through mediation, we will make sure that you have our support and guidance throughout.
We can also take your case to court if this is necessary, to ensure that you have the best possible outcome for your family.
Since April 2022, divorce no longer requires that blame be attributed to one of the parties, it is now a non-fault system. This means that it is no longer necessary to apportion any blame during divorce proceedings, for example, for unreasonable behaviour or adultery. Now all that is necessary is to tell the court that your relationship has irretrievably broken down.
Either party can apply for a divorce or you can choose to make the application together if you wish. It is no longer possible to oppose a divorce.
The new law has introduced more modern terminology. The first order that the court makes is known as the conditional order and what was previously referred to as the decree absolute is now referred to as the final order.
The divorce process itself takes a minimum of six months from the date on which the divorce application is issued by the court. The first stage is a waiting or ‘cooling off’ period of 20 weeks. After this period has passed, the court can be asked to issue a conditional order.
Once the conditional order is received, you will need to wait a further six weeks before you can request a final order. Once the final order has been made, your divorce is complete.
You may be advised to deal with other issues before you finalise your divorce to ensure that you have the right arrangements in place in respect of issues such as property, pensions, finances and children.
If you would like to discuss how long your own divorce is likely to take, please feel free to contact us and we can give you some idea of the issues that will need to be dealt with.
As there is no longer an option to contest a divorce, it is extremely unlikely you will need to go to court to obtain a divorce. You may still need to go to court regarding the finances though.
It is usually also possible to deal with the other issues surrounding a divorce without having to attend court.
We will work to negotiate an agreement on your behalf in respect of maintenance, division of assets and arrangements for children. Where this is not possible, we can refer you to alternative dispute resolution to try and find an acceptable solution.
Only if this fails will it be necessary to go to court. If you do have to attend court, we will make sure that you are thoroughly prepared.
If your spouse has applied to the court for a divorce, the court will send you a copy of the petition. You are advised to speak to a solicitor at this stage to ensure that your rights and interests are sufficiently protected.
You cannot usually contest a divorce, but you need to make sure that related matters are dealt with properly.
There is a time limit of 14 days within which you will need to confirm receipt of the divorce petition. This is done by completing and returning the acknowledgement of service form that will be included with the petition.
The person making the application for a divorce will generally pay the court fee, which is currently £593. If you and your spouse will be making a joint application, you can share the fee. You will also each be liable for your own solicitor’s fees.
A clean break divorce refers to the ending of financial obligations to each other. This can only be done by order of the court.
Whether a clean break is right for you or not will depend on your situation. In some cases, it may be the best option. In some instances, one party may be required to pay maintenance to the other. The courts generally encourage individuals to work towards independence. This means that maintenance may be payable for a period of time to allow someone to transition to being independent and tp apply for a job or retrain, but then maintenance will end.
Another option is maintenance while children are young or still in full-time education. Maintenance could also end if the person receiving payments were to remarry.
A clean break is a final division of property and other assets at the time of the divorce. The court will make a financial order setting out how everything will be shared. It will not usually be possible to return to court after this unless there has been fraud or one party has not fully disclosed all of their assets before the order was made.
Our divorce lawyers in Farnham have extensive experience in all aspects of family law, including providing divorce advice, dealing with the division of assets and making arrangements for children.
You can contact our Family Team of Surrey divorce lawyers on 01252 733770 or email us at enquiries@baker-law.co.uk.
If you are dealing with the administration of the estate of someone who has died, you will have a long list of tasks to carry out. We take a look at some of the key jobs involved in dealing with probate and estate administration.
Many of the enquiries that lawyers receive often come from relatives on behalf of their elderly or vulnerable family members. Writing a Will or creating Lasting Powers of Attorney can sometimes be a daunting task, so many families wish to come along to offer support during the appointment. However, there comes a point when the family member may be asked to step out of the meeting room so that the lawyer can speak with the person making the document alone. This is in their best interests as well as the family member’s and is nothing to be worried about.
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