If you are married and separate you go to see a family lawyer to discuss divorce and the financial arrangements. If matters cannot be agreed you do to the family court and a judge decides. But what if you are not married? There is no legal concept of common law marriage in English law (more on that in a forthcoming piece here). The law deals with property disputes between unmarried couples on strict property law principles. Those disputes are not dealt with under the family court rules but under the civil court rules. However, if the unmarried couple have children there may also be claims in respect to the financial needs of the children, in which case there would be proceedings in the family court under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989.
So if you are not married, who do you consult for advice? A family lawyer who is able to deal with all the issues in a sensitive, family law type way, or a civil lawyer who is able to navigate through the complexities of civil litigation? In truth, relatively few family lawyers are skilled and experienced enough to undertake full-blooded litigation in the civil courts (especially since 2013 when the penalties for failing to comply with the court rules have become very severe indeed). On the other hand, most civil lawyers are not equipped to deal with the issues over provision for the children and, furthermore, they are unlikely to approach the litigation in the same way as a family lawyer who abides by the Resolution code. There are a few lawyers able to do both, but they are relatively limited in number.
Tonight my colleague Rhys Taylor and I (together with Simon Gore Events) begin our campaign to try to rectify this situation. We will be presenting the first of a series of lectures to help family lawyers navigate their way through the complex mass of civil procure rules so that unmarried couples can benefit from the same degree of sensitivity and awareness offered by family lawyers as those parties who are married.
So if you are not married, who do you consult for advice? A family lawyer who is able to deal with all the issues in a sensitive, family law type way, or a civil lawyer who is able to navigate through the complexities of civil litigation? In truth, relatively few family lawyers are skilled and experienced enough to undertake full-blooded litigation in the civil courts (especially since 2013 when the penalties for failing to comply with the court rules have become very severe indeed). On the other hand, most civil lawyers are not equipped to deal with the issues over provision for the children and, furthermore, they are unlikely to approach the litigation in the same way as a family lawyer who abides by the Resolution code. There are a few lawyers able to do both, but they are relatively limited in number.
Tonight my colleague Rhys Taylor and I (together with Simon Gore Events) begin our campaign to try to rectify this situation. We will be presenting the first of a series of lectures to help family lawyers navigate their way through the complex mass of civil procure rules so that unmarried couples can benefit from the same degree of sensitivity and awareness offered by family lawyers as those parties who are married.
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