What to expect when arranging a Consultation with a Family Lawyer

Here at Andrew Isaacs Law, we understand that finding yourself in a position where you require assistance from a Family Lawyer can be extremely daunting.

When separating from your partner you may need advice on the separation or divorce, the financial matters arising from relationship breakdown or issues relating to the children.  Clients often tell us that they are feeling anxious as they have never had to do this before or that they have concerns as they don’t even know where to start.  Please rest assured that our team of specialist family lawyers know exactly what to do and will help you to understand too.

It may be that you have spoken to friends or family who have been through similar circumstances, and they have told you what you need to do.  It is important to note that unfortunately family law advice is not a “one size fits all”.  This is due to each individual’s family/financial situation being unique.  For this reason, we are unable to provide advice without first having a consultation with a client as we need to go through every aspect of the case and only once we have done this with you, can we provide advice which is tailored to your personal situation.

It is extremely important that you seek advice as soon as possible rather than take the advice of family or friends who are not trained in this area of law as Family Law, especially finances surrounding relationship breakdown can be extremely complex matters.  In fact, if you come to an agreement with your ex-partner before seeking advice it could cause problems further down the line which may prove to be costly.

How do I arrange a consultation?

All you need to do is telephone our office on 01302 349 480  (Doncaster) or 01664 896 218 (Melton Mowbray).  Alternatively, if you complete a contact form on our website, our team will call you at a time convenient to you.

We appreciate that life is busy, and as a result consultations can be arranged in one of three ways, whichever is preferable to yourself:

• A face-to-face meeting at our offices
• Over video such as Zoom or Teams
• By telephone call where our lawyer will call you using the telephone number provided

Why do you ask for my ex-partner’s details?

We ask for your ex-partner’s details in order that we can run a ‘Conflict of Interest’ check.   We will not contact your ex-partner at this stage.

A Conflict-of-Interest Check simply means that we enter the details of your ex-partner into our system to check if we have advised them previously.  If it transpires that we have advised them previously, then unfortunately this means that we are unable to advise yourself as this would be a conflict of interest for our firm.  Should this happen to you, we will provide you with the details of other local firms that may be able to help you.

Which lawyer will my case be allocated to?

Our team will allocate your case to the lawyer that they feel can best deal with your matter.  However, if you request that a specific lawyer deals with your case, then of course we can arrange this for you.

How much will it cost?

At the time of writing this article, the cost of an initial consultation has a fixed fee of £150.  Some firms may offer free advice with a time limit of say 20 minutes.  We do not offer free advice with a time limit as we don’t want our clients to worry about the clock ticking.  We like our clients to relax as much as they possibly can in order that we can explore every avenue with them to ensure that everything is covered before we provide our advice.  A consultation with us will only end once we have gone through every aspect of your case with you.

How can I prepare for a meeting with a Family Lawyer?

We ask that you bring with you anything that you believe may be relevant to your case.  Examples of such can be seen below:

• Children matters; Court Orders that have been made or any written agreement formed with your ex-partner in relation to arrangements for the children
• Financial matters; documents to include bank statements, properties owned and the value of such, pension details etc
• Divorce/Dissolution; your Marriage Certificate
• All cases; two forms of ID to include proof of name and proof of current address
• A list of the points you want to cover or the questions that you would like to ask is always useful too.

What happens after my consultation?

If you feel that we have provided you with all the advice that you need at this stage and would like to deal with the matter yourself then that is fine!  Our consultations carry no obligation to instruct us.

However, if you have decided that you would like a Family Lawyer to deal with your matter for you, then we would provide you with a client care pack, which includes a client engagement letter along with our Terms and Conditions.  We advise that you read these documents in detail as these documents set out our contract with you including details of costings.

To enable us to begin work on your matter we would require:

• The client engagement letter to be signed by yourself
• Two forms of ID to include proof of name and proof of address
• A payment on account – the amount will be specified within the engagement letter

Once we have all of the above, we will notify your lawyer and they will then begin work on your matter.

I hope this article helps to put your mind at ease and answers some of the questions you may have.  Should you have further questions or wish to book in with us following reading this article, please give us a call.

Kerry Ridley – Media & Business Development  29.06.2023