Family law is different.
The anguish, hurt, worry which can be present in many family law disputes is enormous.
For this reason your solicitor needs to recognise the psychological and emotional trauma for people involved in family law conflict.
It is an area of law that has exploded in the last number of years with legislation such as the Family Law Act 1995, the Family Law Divorce Act 1996 and other critical pieces of legislation entering the statute books in the last two decades or so.
Many of these issues are sources of huge pain and frustration for all parties concerned.
Family law solicitors have a huge area of issues to deal with on behalf of clients such as
- Nullity and void marriages
- Full and final settlement in negotiated separation agreements
- the non-marital family in Ireland
- Family law legal aid
- Separation agreements
- Judicial separation in Ireland, the grounds for judicial separation, and separation agreements
- Maintenance
- Ancillary orders and other reliefs to be pursued on divorce and judicial separation
- Domestic violence in Ireland-barring orders, protection orders, safety orders
- Child care law in Ireland
- Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 which was signed into law in 2010
- Child law including guardianship, access and custody
- The tax implications of marriages breaking up
- Adoption
- Foreign divorces in Ireland
- Divorce law in Ireland-grounds for divorce and divorce procedure in the Circuit Court
- The Family Mediation service
- Paternity and declarations of parentage
As can be seen from the above getting a good family law solicitor is critically important to a successful outcome in your family law difficulties.
Family law solicitors in Ireland
Generally family law solicitors in Ireland need to take a slightly different approach to legal disputes where the need to consider the interests of the child or children involved needs to be considered to a greater extent than might normally be the case in a litigation matter.
Another critical difference in family law is that the family law Court will have to consider in great detail future events, especially in relation to children and their needs and the responsibilities of the parents in caring for those children.
Generally courts are more concerned with what has happened in the past rather than trying to make provision for the future and the choices that a court makes will have a significant impact on those future outcomes.
Non legal solutions
Family law solicitors in Ireland also have a statutory duty to discuss with the client the possibilities provided by negotiated settlements between the parties, reconciliation and mediation, that is non legal solutions should be advised in the first instance.
Please note that we are on the family law legal aid panels for many Counties including Dublin, Kildare and Meath.