Podcast – Family law and divorce

Welcome to the With You All the Way podcast, brought to you by braces providing legal support to families and businesses since 1895.

Hi, I’m Claire Waters, I’m a senior paralegal in the residential conveyancing team here at Brachers. You may have heard our podcasts, before. But I’ve got a new one today with Sophie Read, who is a partner in our family law team. Sophie. Hello, Claire. Nice to see you. I am, and as Claire said, I’m a partner in the family team.

I have worked at Brachers. We were just adding it up weren’t we. Claire. We were adding up the years. I think I’ve been a year now for 11 years. And I’ve been here for 17 years. Yes. And we’ve been very good friends. We’ve we have got to know each other early on, didn’t we? We did. And we used to work in the Medway House building.

In the old building in the olden days. Yeah. And now we’ve. But you, Yes. Emigrated to a Canterbury office. Absolutely. It’s nice to be for the shopping that, you know. Yeah. So I work in the Canterbury office, and now they joined late, I’m proud to say, about Canterbury, team with Josh Williams, who’s partner in our private client team.

Bringing all things wonderful. And you have to very strong start. So I’ve heard on the Brachers grapevine. Yes. And, well, yes. I still do the breakfast with Brachers. The and we run the networking, event, which is, wonderful breakfast with Brachers. You can come along, have a chat to have a croissant. It’s very relaxed atmosphere.

But it’s gone from strength to strength. We attract all new, businesses, existing businesses in the Canterbury district, new clients, potential clients. And it’s just a wonderful open space for people to get to know one another. Because I often find when you go to networking event is about building those relationships rather than it’s it’s mostly professional always.

Yes, but it can be. The thing with divorces could happen to anybody. Could absolutely can really I, I think the area of what I do, it’s so important for clients to feel relaxed with the person that’s going to represent them, to have their best interests at heart and to move forward in the direction that they want to with the ease of knowing the person that they they have representing me, I would I would certainly want to be able to relate to a person and have confidence in the ability.

Yeah. So talking of, of divorces and all things, marital. Yes. How do people get in touch? How do they find out what they need to do? So I think when, when they’re thinking about their marriage. Yes. Well, we have many ways and depending on how those people feel comfortable making that first point of contact, because it is such an emotive area of law, that, we offer them, you can have call in to the office and we have very large family team, so there’s always somebody on hand to take that call, to go through that initial discussion with them and say if they’re feeling confident enough to do that and that that

point in their. So just to give you a ray, just to give us a call, details on our website or if you just, you know, it’s an evening and you’re thinking about it and you want to reach out, but the phone lines are not available at that point, you can just use our online contact form that would be picked up immediately the next day.

But usually one of the joint lead partners in the family team, you can then make contact with that individual. So and so so that’s on the web page and it’s a questionnaire. Is it that you can fill in. Absolutely. So there’s there’s an array of questions. But you don’t have to complete all of them if you just want to give the, you know, your name and your address.

Your email address and your telephone number, we can get in contact about that. If you want to give us a bit more background, then the form enables you to do that as well. As I say, we’ve got a large family team, so we can often pinpoint them to the right individual in the team and the right level to suit their specific people sometimes need lots of support and and lots of advice and others only.

Only partial. Absolutely, absolutely. So, I’ve been, the family solicitor for over 11 years. And I’ve found throughout my career that people know people’s needs are all different. And we have the experience to meet those, individual needs. So it could be that somebody is coming to us and saying, my husband has left me.

I have young children. I have no clue what to say. Please help me. We’re right on hand to help. And, we also have great contacts with, with, other agencies such as mental health support, domestic abuse support, so that we can put them in contact with the right, support groups that are out there. Or we have individuals coming to us saying, I’ve reached an agreement with my husband.

I need you to help me put that into a legal document to, to so they’ve seen you today at all levels? Absolutely. Yeah. So so some people have it all arranged and and know what they want, but other people. Yeah, just I have I have barely touched the surface of negotiations. Yeah. That’s true. And sometimes, you know, clients that, unfortunately go through difficult times, they can be a very different emotional state.

As I said, it’s a it’s a very emotive area of law. And you could have a client that has, so it’s when wanting to leave their partner for, for many years. So in a very different emotional state at that point in their lives than somebody who unfortunately, their is just left them. So, so it’s very different.

And as I say, the benefit of our team, is that we are very experienced and we have, an array of levels to, to meet that, that client. So can you say sort of generally what the, what the procedure is, are you. But yeah, absolutely. For the divorce procedure, so we now have no fault divorces, which I’m sure many, many of our listeners would have heard about.

And they, you know, it’s an absolute great thing because what it means is that, that the individual can, can start the divorce process online themselves, and it can be a joint application with that. Ex spouse as well. So it can be an online. So they can they just do that all online so they can do that online.

We would obviously say get some initial legal advice before starting it because the things that they should be aware of. But it’s no fault. And the idea behind that is to lessen the acrimony, between the parties because, especially in, you know, family team operations, we don’t like to raise the temperatures in an already difficult scenario.

So is that the same as, mediation? Does that help people do? Yeah. Look at things more clearly. Yeah. There’s an array of. So it’s a divorce procedure itself. Is, I say, a very straightforward process that we can assist you with. But it’s done. It’s an administrative process, if you like. It can be done in line with our guidance.

The area that really needs the focus, support and legal advice is when people are sorting out the finances. Divorce. That’s not an area that you can Google. You can research, you can get some sort of Q&A, but you really need that tailored, individual, specific advice. And that’s where we can absolutely step in. My kids access to the parties involved.

Yeah, absolutely. Make it fair to the parties involved. And a question that I often get asked is I don’t know where to start. And how do I know who gets what. And the first, the first kind of thing that we do is to look at the, the dynamic of the family. So, for example, if the parties are talking, they’re still living together.

It’s fairly amicable. We might suggest mediation. We have two mediators within the family team and they can take them through the mediation process. The benefit of mediation is, of course, that you you use one predominantly, lawyer mediation to, to talk them through the, the financial picture and to help them reach that end goal, a financial settlement and an agreement between them and an agreement between them both.

But that’s not suitable for everyone. And so there are many other ways that people can reach a financial settlement. Collaborative is is another area. I’m collaborative, collaboratively trained lawyer. So I am specifically trying to sit down round the table with husband and wife. And if I’m representing the wife, the husband will have his individual lawyer collaboratively trained.

So round the table we can all work together to reach a settlement. And that often is very beneficial for parties and and to set the time scale down and the costs down and things like that, it can do. But I think that the main benefit of collaborative law is that you’re working together as a family to reach a resolution to suit the family.

You know, the key aim is not to raise the temperatures, not to, increase the difficulty that they’re currently going through, but it’s just to really focus on reaching that end goal. The financial settlement. So both as easily as possible, as easily as possible, both parties can move forward knowing that they they’ve both worked with their best interests of the family, not in mind.

And we can absolutely help them then with that. I’ve done lots of collaborative, work. And I absolutely love it because it’s, for example, a client will say to me over email, I’ve got this specific question about the house. The house is in my name. Does my husband have rights to the house because it’s in my name.

It’s an asset that I own and I can email my advice. And then that that person has the time to think about it. But when you’re in a room sitting round together, you can fight. You can even imagine, can’t you, Claire? You can fire off those questions really quickly, get those answers. But also the husband or the wife is listening to your responses.

So you’re dealing with that issue quite quickly and you’re moving on to the next ring. Any questions? They might be about it. Yeah, absolutely. It’s like if if you’re working it seems to be much smoother process. It can be a much me the process obviously we would we would go through with our client at the outset to see whether that would be right for them.

And as I say, we’ve got very experienced team that would be able to do that. On the initial court. You have more than more than one person, assisting the client. You know, it’s it’s yeah, absolutely. Team I, I never work solely on my own, with my clients. And that’s the benefit of our family team because we have an array of levels.

So what that means to the client comes to me as a partner and experience partner. And I can give specific quick advice on their needs and their issues. But sometimes there are things like court applications to be prepared, statements to be put together, bundles to be put together. And I wouldn’t do that work. I’d filter that work down to the individuals within the team.

And that’s a huge cost benefit to the client, because they often at a lower hourly rate than mine. So it saves time and costs. In one way it’s all about teamwork. Can’t wait. Which basis? Yeah. Well, you and I have worked together on many cases. We do. We do that because if the if the marital home needs to be sold or transferred into, one one parties, then we, we help you with that.

And it’s great that we can get together in the office and give an excuse. And it’s an excuse for a quick cup of coffee and a chat. Yeah. How about client exactly? Yeah. Yes. And I remember cases that we’ve worked on together, Claire. And I think the benefit of clients coming to brochures is that we are a mobile service firm.

So if I’ve got an issue that I don’t understand, I’m not a property trained lawyer. So there are many questions that come up with in my area of law that I struggle with. And I have to struggle very, very little, not very long because we hit the phone or I pop down to you and say, I’ve got this transfer form, Claire, please can you have a look at it all?

We near completion time scales. Could you give me a rough timescale? And also the benefit for our clients is it’s kept in-house. It is all kept in-house. We don’t have to, go to anybody else and share details with anybody else or anything. Now, we’re always close by and the same with if they need to redraw their wills.

Yeah, we’ve we’ve got the private client client team. You know if that, if that. So imagine that a, a person going through divorce proceedings main asset is usually the house. So there’s often property issues and we have. Yes. And we have a property team that we always advise to to reconsider their will when they’re going through divorce.

You know, have you updated your. Well because everything that everything changes doesn’t really impact absolutely everything. And we’re here to advise you on every sort of area that it impacts on. So I can pop down and say, you know, Josh in our private client team to. Exactly. Because we need to make sure that that they’re that their life is going to be catered for properly.

Yeah. Legally. Okay. Going forward, you know how they’re going to hold their property. And I each step we’ve got those professionals. We should be able to step in and to assess how are assets divided in divorce if the parties can’t reach an agreement. Well it’s a good question, Claire. And if no agreement is reached between the parties, the court does have a wide discretion, to look at the assets and how they are going to be divided fairly.

The most important aspect for the court is to meet the parties needs, in most cases meeting the essential needs of the party will, be all that is achievable for some clients. In some limited means cases, it may only be possible to meet the basic needs. When you’re looking at, assets, it’s usually the house that’s the main asset that needs to be divided.

And it’s looking at how those housing needs initially can be met. But you also look at income needs as well. Data income needs. So, so that the kind of two key areas that we will advise you on how, how it can be done, in, in a relatively, long marriage or not in a short marriage, but in a, in a medium to long term marriage, the court starting point will be, 5050, so equal division of the matrimonial assets, so, so yeah, that’s generally what we will where we will come in and give that specific advice because it’s a big question to answer.

And, and it really does depend on the individual case as to what the assets are, and what the individual needs of those parties are. And your team is growing, growing, and it grows and it grows and it grows, and we are very busy, and we are very lucky to have the individuals that we do work within the team.

But again, that’s the years of experience, obviously, with with all of them. Have you? But it’s an open door policy and that’s what I also love. I know it sounds very cliche to say the family team is a family, but is absolutely true. Is there anything else that you’d like to add to to, you know, give some advice to people that potentially need need some help?

I think reach out. I think the biggest step for most of the clients that I talked to is not knowing when how to do it, you know, is now the right time. We’ll have that call, pick up the phone and speak to us, and we’ll be able to guide and help you do that first stage, that next step.

And and that’s not to say that them calling us, that is the right time there. And then we can have the discussion. We can have an initial meeting and then we can just if they want to park it for a while and pick it back up. But I think the benefits in a great way is the right time is so for you personally, although you might want some time to speak to somebody about it was the right time.

You sometimes need a bit of preparation yourself mentally. Don’t you know you can talk to somebody about it? It’s a big it’s a big thing. And we recognize that. But we have the experiences of individual and it’s no obligation. So I would really say if you are unsure about your position, if you are worried about your relationship or anything you know remotely surrounding your family, then reach out to us and we’re here.

We’re here to help. Lovely. Sophie. That’s really good. And it’s lots of information. Things that I didn’t know as well. Great to talk to you as usual. So if anybody, listening to this podcast wants more help, I’d like to speak to our Sophie, to get some advice. Then she is available on the cell phone. You can fill out the questionnaire on our website.

Obviously at the Canterbury office if you’re there or Maidstone here. And, get in touch with her, we’re sure that we’ll be able to help. Thanks for listening. Thank you for.