Working for a Wirral Family Law Firm

A few years ago, I used to work for a Wirral family law practice and I learnt a great deal about the legal profession while I was there. It was my first job and quite an eye opener. When it come to divorce, Wirral has its fair share of both amicable and contested divorces. The firm I was working for had a mixture of clients from all walks of life and from many cultures.

For some people divorce was a word which came easily to their mind whenever they faced any difficulties in their marriage and they saw it as a quick way out of a situation in which they were no longer happy. For others, this one word seemed to be the end of their world and their future. There were some women who were being divorced by their husbands on the flimsiest of grounds and they wanted to do all they could to salvage something from their marriages. They are often confused and do not know their rights as they are often from different countries.

In order to apply for a divorce, there has t be one of five reasons and these are; adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion of 2 years, separation of 2 years if both parties agree to the divorce and separation of 5 years if both parties do not agree to the divorce. In England and Wales you can only apply for a divorce once you have been married for twelve months. If it has been less than 12 months then you can apply for a legal separation instead of a divorce. This involves applying for only one decree rather than for the decree nisi and the decree absolute.

If there are no major contentions and the divorce does not involve any complicated issues, then the whole process can be over in a matter of four to six months, and nay firms have a fixed fee structure for this type of divorce. If however, things get more convoluted, then the time taken will increase, as well as the costs. Since almost half of all marriages will end up in divorce, there is a lot of business for solicitors dealing with divorce, Wirral or elsewhere.

The Wirral family law firm where I worked would be approached for quotes regarding fees and costs and then some people would come back after shopping around, and hire us to handle their various issues. These could be legal separation, divorce procedures, matters relating to finances including things such as pensions, joint bank accounts, assets and property, and the hardest issues which involved children. Some of these children would be brought in to the office and it was heart breaking to see their looks of hurt and confusion. For their sake, their parents would have bitter battles regarding custody and visitation rights and it seemed to me that amongst all of this, both parties forgot to consider the feelings of the small children who were caught in the middle of these battles.