PRACTICE AREAFAMILY FINANCE

Our expert family finance barristers deal with all aspects of financial remedies whether the parties are married or not. They deal confidently with cases at all levels: from high value matrimonial estates to more modest ones where the main asset is frequently the former matrimonial home, or one party’s pension.

We can advise on the more challenging aspects of financial remedies including:

• Assets held in complex trust structures
• Family businesses which may need to be valued by an expert report
• Inherited assets or assets brought into the marriage by one party
• Third party interests, such as a property owned partly by the parent of one party, which may necessitate concurrent proceedings to determine their interest
• Cryptocurrency investments
• Large final salary pensions
• Non-disclosure and fraud
• Pre-Nuptial agreements

Members of the family finance team are routinely instructed to act on cases involving parties who are self-employed or employed with complex renumeration structures, and we are confident in dealing with child and spousal maintenance both when an order is made and on variation.

Guildford Chambers barristers have acted successfully in many areas of Family Law including:

• All applications under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, where the parties are or have been married including:
  • Injunctions to prevent concealment or dissipation of assets;

• • Orders to deal with capital assets including transfer or sale of properties, payments of lump sums and transfers of shares: in modest asset cases these orders are usually made to enable the parties to be appropriately housed after they are divorced.  In larger asset cases these may be to provide a ‘Duxbury’ income fund for one party;
  • Pension sharing orders;
  • Maintenance orders including spousal maintenance and child maintenance including top-up orders, school fees orders and orders for children who are disabled;
  • Applications to vary orders made by the court (which are usually maintenance orders)
• Applications under Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989 for financial provision for the children of parents who are not married, frequently by way of capital to enable the caring parent to rehouse;
• Applications under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (or ‘TOLATA’) where parties are not married but either legally own or beneficially share property together;
• Applications related to maintenance for children under the Child Support Act 1991 including appeals to the First-Tier Tribunal and Upper Chamber;
• Applications under the Inheritance Act 1975 where a party has died without making reasonable financial provision for another entitled party such as a widow/widower or dependent child;
• Enforcement of orders made by the court, by way of committal to prison, a charging order over property, or attachment of earnings.

However complicated your case is, our barristers will carefully explain each stage of any proceedings in a jargon-free way, so that all the implications can be clearly understood by clients.  Where necessary, we will pursue all legitimate means to ensure justice for our clients, however we also recognise that others want to focus on early settlement.

In all cases, we will keep a close watch on legal costs to ensure that the expense is worthwhile.