The breakdown of your marriage or relationship can be one of the most difficult and emotional periods you will experience. We can offer trustworthy, reliable and sympathetic advice to achieve a result that is best for you. Every member of our family team specialises in family law and has experience of dealing with cases in the sensitive and professional manner.
Areas of Work:
We specialise in advising and resolving all areas of family law work including:
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Relationship Breakdown
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Children including:
a. Residence and contact arrangements
b. Specific issues such as change of name education and holiday contact
c. Parental responsibility
d. Child abduction
e. Adoption
f. Matters involving Social Services and Care Proceedings
g. Guardianship of Children marital agreements
Our Approach To All Cases
We take a sympathetic and direct approach to our clients' cases aiming to resolve disputes as smoothly and cost effectively as possible. We try to minimise animosity and concentrate instead on achieving the best possible outcome quickly.
We are non-judgmental in our approach to our cases and pride ourselves on giving sound and sensible advice.
The welfare of any children will always be our priority as of course will yours too.
We subscribe to the 'Resolution' code of practice whose site can be viewed by clicking on the following link http://www.resolution.co.uk/.
Our Team
We have one of the largest family law departments in the South East with three Partners and six Assistant Solicitors, each specialising in family work. We can offer great breadth of experience because of this.
Our Expertise
We have five members of the prestigious 'Resolution' Expert Family Lawyer Accreditation panel, five members of the Law Society's Children Panel and also a number of members of the Law Society's Family Panel. This makes us one of the most experienced expert Family Law teams in the country.
Reputation
We receive referrals from various judges, professional organisations, trade unions, local advice agencies, voluntary organisations including women's refuges, police stations and local courts to name but a few. We serve clients all over the country and abroad too. If it suits you we can successfully deal with cases mainly by telephone and email. We pride ourselves on the service we offer and our good working relationships with our clients and others.
Over half of our new family clients are recommended to us by previous clients of the firm.
Edwards Duthie holds a Legal Services Commission specialist contract for many of the specialist available areas.
Time to Reflect
When relationships breakdown emotions can run very high. You may well feel that divorce and separation is the only way forward. However, we will discuss with you whether this is really the best way forward for you and refer you, if you wish, to agencies and counsellors that might be able to assist in a reconciliation process. Even if reconciliation is not what you feel is best you may wish to separate from your spouse or partner and allow time to reflect before moving to formalise the situation with a divorce.
In this situation we can also help by advising you as to your interim position and perhaps assisting you in entering into a separation agreement.
Legal Aid
We hold the quality mark for family law, which means we are regularly assessed and audited by the Legal Services Commission against Quality standards. Edwards Duthie holds a Legal Services Commission specialist contract for all the specialist available areas, the only firm in the country to do so.
To check whether or not you will be eligible for legal aid please go to the Legal Services Commission website and follow the links to the eligibility calculator. If you recover or preserve money or property, you may be required to repay your fees to the Legal Services Commission.
Costs - Other Charging Rates
We charge on a private basis according to the amount of work undertaken on your case. We provide an estimate of costs at the outset and keep you informed of the costs position on a regular basis. We accept payments in advance by instalments to help with your budgeting. We are able to offer fixed fees for some areas of work. For example our fees for an uncontested divorce itself are £600 plus VAT and Court fees totalling £340. Our charging rates vary from £200 to £120 depending on the complexity of the case and the seniority of the person conducting your case. Financial cases typically cost between £3- 5000. Fixed price deals are available.
Communication
We can be contacted by telephone, voicemail and e-mail. We will return your calls at the earliest opportunity if we are unavailable at the time of your call. We will keep you informed at every stage of your case.
Collaborative Law
We offer Collaborative law as the best way of resolving fiancial and chilren issues
Mediation
We have excellent relationships with independent mediation organisations where appropriate referrals can be made.
