Family Law

Marriage and relationship breakdown is a very stressful and distressing situation. The law recognizes that all parties should make every effort to resolve their issues in an amicable and reasoned way. If the parties have dependent children, the best interests of those children are given first priority by the law. Family law cases are therefore different to other litigation and require understanding to be shown to all parties. However, if one or more parties are not behaving reasonably, court ordered solutions are required.

We provide services in this area for:

• Separation Agreements
• Judicial separation
• Divorces
• Custody and Access Applications
• Guardianship Applications
• Maintenance Applications
• Domestic Violence Barring Orders, Safety orders, Protection Orders
• Civil Partnerships
• Cohabiting Couples

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is often used in family law matters.  In sensitive matters ADR does not add to the stress, where a Court situation can.  For family law matters such as separation, the forms of ADR used are structured negotiation, collaborative law and mediation.  Our Managing Partner, John M. Lynch is an accredited Mediator, collaborative lawyer and practitioner of structured negotiations and he regularly uses these methods in family law disputes, helping people to reach an agreement themselves rather than deciding the outcome for them.