A family law solicitor generally means a solicitor who is conversant with family law, which includes divorce. Some solicitors even specialise in this area of law and will be able to help you with any issues that may arise along the way.

Some specialist family law solicitors are members of the Law Society’s Family Law Accreditation scheme, which approves solicitors who have in-depth legal knowledge and who can deal with family law cases in a particularly skilful manner. They also approve solicitors for the Family Law Accreditation scheme- Advanced, which means that the solicitors involved can deal with particularly complex cases.

Finding a family law solicitor

Your family solicitor may have acted for you in other matters previously, and you may feel comfortable with them. However, if you want to find a specialist, many family law solicitors will offer a free or fixed-fee initial appointment to determine whether they can help with your case. Likewise, you may ask any questions you have prepared about your circumstances.

If you are looking to get divorced then a family law solicitor can assist you throughout the process with a range of matters, including:

• Refer you to a third-party mediator, if it is agreed that this may help them come to a settlement with the other party in the divorce. Your solicitor will also be able to advise you during and after such mediation, to ensure that any agreement reached is protecting your best interests
• If third-party mediation has not been attempted or has failed, solicitors can act as intermediaries in negotiations between their client and the other party, by communicating with the other party’s solicitor. This process can be particularly lengthy if there are large amounts of property and assets to be divided.
• Solicitors can help with observing the strict deadlines for official documentation, such as the divorce petition and the divorce affidavit. There are many documents that need to be completed and filed correctly and this can be complicated for someone who is new to divorce
• Solicitors can help prepare the Statement of Arrangements, which must detail how matters are to be settled with regard to any children from the relationship. The court will require detailed information about future planning for the children by the divorcing parents

If you are financially eligible then legal aid may be available for your divorce case. Legal aid is funded by the Legal Services Commission (LSC), and only specialist family law firms are able to work on legal aid divorce cases.

The Government is currently looking to implement significant changes to the availability of legal aid. As such, in order to secure funding you are advised to instruct a specialist family law solicitor who will be well-acquainted with any ongoing changes.

Typically, most couples might try a trial separation or undergo counseling before making the ultimate decision to divorce. Many wonder exactly at what point in this journey they need a lawyer. Irwin Mitchell recommends that once the decision is made to obtain a divorce, a lawyer needs to be consulted. In some situations the lawyers at Irwin Mitchell will just serve in a consultative role. However, depending upon the situation, the lawyers may advise that you will need further legal assistance. Divorce can be a convoluted legal process. Irwin Mitchell has the experience and knowledge to guide clients through the process. Irwin Mitchell will look out for your rights and help you obtain the best possible settlement. The solicitors at Irwin Mitchell will protect your rights at a time when you’re often emotionally confused to see things clearly.

Irwin Mitchell can also help clients through a process known as collaborative divorce. With the guidance of a solicitor for both parties, the divorcing couple is able to avoid going to court which can further add to the divorce expenses. With this process, the couples and their lawyers go through several meetings trying to reach an agreement. Irwin Mitchell is well versed in this process and will do what it can to help their client avoid going to court.

If you want to know more information about Irwin Mitchell, or their personal injury London services, then visit www.irwinmitchell.com.

Small businesses face a near impossible task at times balancing the necessity to ensure revenues exceed overheads and in dealing with business red tape. It can be very difficult to assess priorities in terms of what is essential compliance wise. Often, corporate filings and company records can inadvertently slip down the list of “to do’s”, but it is important, and doesn’t take any appreciable time, to at least keep the register of shareholders up-to-date. There can be significant and unforeseen consequences of failing to do so, if there is a change and the new shareholders details are not promptly recorded.

The implications of failing to properly record a change in shareholdings can include :-

• notices of meetings may be invalid
• Decisions made at shareholder meetings may not be valid and legal

These are clearly important parts of running a limited company, so it pays to ensure company records are kept up-to-date and thankfully, this is not a particularly time consuming task.

A study by software company Intuit of some 50 start up businesses indicates that PAYE is a major consideration for them and tax return paperwork also causes major issues.  A few quick facts to come out of the survey :-

• 2/3rds stated that PAYE is a major issue in taking on staff
• Nearly ½ were unaware of the requirement for filing statutory PAYE end of year returns.
• ¼ fully expect to be late in submitting the PAYE return

House sharing arrangements are becoming increasingly common according to research from easyroommate.com. Headline data from that research is worth noting :-

• Number of couples willing to share with others has almost doubled in the last year.
• Some 11% of house sharing is with a couple and others.
• Renting a room in a property shared with housemates costs couples an average of £426 a month, compared with £687 to rent a house or flat on their own.
• Economic conditions and lack of affordability for first time buyers are creating this niche market

In general legal terms, house sharing arrangements are no different from other residential occupancy situations. It is always worth bearing in mind, as a prospective landlord, the old adage that 2possession is 9/10 of the law”. Once you let someone into your property, it can be very difficult, lengthy and expensive to remove them, even if they stop paying rent or commit other breaches. This is an area where taking legal advice and undertaking as many practical checks is vital before taking in a lodger. It is definitely worth considering a bespoke house sharing contract also.

• been domiciled for IHT purposes in the UK at the date of death; and
• not have owned foreign assets (i.e. a holiday home) worth more than £100,000 at the date of death.

It seems that the average person in the UK now consider it generally ok to break the law on a wide array of minor legal infringements. When we say, minor, the consequences, unintended, can be severe, especially in terms of traffic accidents. However, our perception is that minor infringements are not important. Is this a worrying sign ? In statistical terms, based on a survey of 3,000 adults :-

• The average Brit breaks the law around 21 times a year
• Speeding, eating or drinking while driving and not wearing a seat belt are the most common breaches.
• Other common legal breaches are downloading music illegally, texting or chatting while driving, and cycling without lights.