A. Williams & Co. (Solicitors) A. Williams & Co. (Solicitors) - Practice Areas

Information on the Family Law Services we provide and those we do not provide

We provided advice and representation in the following areas;

separation and judicial separation.
divorce petition grounds.
financial matters arising out of separation or divorce.
Review of tax and pensions matters.
International and jurisdictional issues.
Injunctions and restraining orders.
Cohabitation and premarital contracts.

Where children were involved, our areas of advice and assistance included:

Custody issues and maintenance payments towards the children.
Residency issues.
Contact order issues.
International Adoption advice.
International Wardship and guardianship issues.

We do not provide services in respect of legal aid or mental health issues.

Please feel free to review the family section of our site for the examples of cases we have taken on in the past.

Our Prices and Costs

Our pricing for bringing and defending family law matters in similar matters as the written examples of cases described on this website are as follows:

Simple case including advice: £2,500 (plus 20% VAT) – £5,000 (plus 20% VAT)

Medium complexity case: £5,000 (plus 20% VAT) – £25,000 (plus 20% VAT)

High complexity case if it involves litigation and going to court: £50,000 (plus 20% VAT) – £300,000 (plus 20% VAT).

Factors that could make a case more complex:

If it is necessary to make an application for and order of injunction to prevent the dissipation of assets
If we have to serve the Defendant outside jurisdiction of the UK
Collating exhibits for the court
If we have to challenge or defend applications to amend claims or to provide further information about an existing claim
Defending claims that are brought by litigants in person
Making or defending a costs application
Complex preliminary issues such as whether there are children involved, the claimant is disabled or the applicable law or applicable jurisdiction (if this is not agreed by the parties)
The number of witnesses and documents
If we have to file several claims at the same time in the best interest of the client.

There will be an additional charge for attending courts of a minimum of £5,000 plus 20% VAT per day (excluding the cost of a barrister). Generally, we would allow 5 – 10 days minimum on most cases depending on the complexity of your case.

Disbursements

Disbursements are costs related to your matter that are payable to third parties, such as court fees. We handle the payment of the disbursements on your behalf to ensure a smoother process.

Counsel's fees are estimated at between £3,500 plus 20% vat – £8,500 plus 20% vat per day (depending on experience of the advocate and the preparation of a skeleton argument as required by the court) for attending a Court Hearing (including preparation)

Key stages

The fees set out above cover all of the work in relation to the following key stages of a claim:

Taking your initial instructions, reviewing the papers and advising you on merits and likely compensation (this is likely to be revisited throughout the matter and subject to change)
Entering into pre-claim conciliation and without prejudice offers for settlement where this is mandatory to explore whether a settlement can be reached
Preparing a claim or Defence to a claim already filed.
Reviewing and advising on a claim or Defence from other party
Exploring settlement and negotiating settlement throughout the process
preparing or considering a costs schedule
Preparing for (and attending) a Preliminary Hearing
Exchanging documents with the other party and agreeing a bundle of documents as required.
Taking witness statements, drafting statements and agreeing their content with witnesses
preparing bundle of documents
Reviewing and advising on the other party's witness statements
agreeing a list of issues, a chronology and/or cast list
Preparation and attendance at Final Hearing, including instructions to Counsel.

The stages set out above are an indication and if some of stages above are not required, the fee will be reduced. You may wish to handle the claim yourself and only have our advice in relation to some of the stages. This can also be arranged on your individual needs.

How long will my matter take?

The time that it takes from taking your initial instructions to the final resolution of your matter depends largely on the stage at which your case is resolved. If a settlement is reached during initial pre-claim settlement, your case is likely to take 8 – 16 weeks. If your claim proceeds to a Final Hearing, your case is likely to take up to a year depending on the complexity. This is just an estimate and we will of course be able to give you a more accurate timescale once we have more information and as the matter progresses.

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Services Provided

Work Done

Please contact us for more details on any of the foregoing :

EMPLOYMENT LAW

We represented clients on a wide range of employment matters, including;

redundancy, unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal
race discrimination claims
sexual harassment claims
disability discrimination
drafting compromise and conciliation agreements

Example of recent work;

Filing a claim on behalf of a probationary employee against her employer for ‘automatically unfair dismissal,’ and representing the employee at the Tribunal.
Acting on behalf of an employer in the private sector in relation to a claim for sex discrimination, breach of contract and personal injury and working with ACAS towards reaching a conciliated agreement.
Providing advice to an employee in public office in respect of discrimination claims against the employer.

FAMILY LAW

We provided advice and representation in the following areas;

separation and judicial separation .
divorce petition grounds.
financial matters arising out of separation or divorce.
Review of tax and pensions matters.
International and jurisdictional issues.
Injunctions and restraining orders.
Cohabitation and premarital contracts.

Where children were involved, our areas of advice and assistance included:

Custody issues and maintenance payments towards the children.
Residency issues.
Contact order issues.
International Adoption advice.
International Wardship and guardianship issues.

Example of recent work;

Advice and opinion on cross cultural marital laws and the validity or otherwise of a subsequent 18 year ‘marriage’ when the spouse was still married at the time of the alleged marriage.
Advice and opinion on marriage by cohabitation and repute.
Advice and opinion on implication of a bigamous relationship.
Providing instructions to experts for handwriting analysis reports to the court.
Advice on Calderbank offers for settlement.
Advice andinstructions to the handwriting expert division of the police in a foreign jurisdiction.
Advice on appeal of the maintenance pending suit order and on stay of execution of the freezing order. The issue of Maintenance pending suit by the court was considered especially where the jurisdiction of the court was being constested.
Acting on behalf of a client to enforce the terms of a consent order for the upkeep and maintenance of their children following the break down of the marriage and subsequent divorce.
Filing and defending applications to court for third party debt orders, charging orders on the relevant properties and registration of the orders with the land registry to enforce the arrears of maintenance payments accrued.
Applications made to defend hardship applications.
Applications for leave to enforce arrears of maintenance orders.
Notification of Home office and subsequent litigation to prevent child abduction from a foreign jurisdiction.
Agency and representation in the family court on behalf of a disabled great aunt for defined contact with her great nieces.

WILLS & INTESTACY

We have represented and provided advice to international clients in matters involving contentious probate and intestacy disputes either directly or through our vast network of international law firms sometimes where the client could not travel overseas or where litigation had already been commenced against the client in the UK or overseas. In one instance, in the High Court at the Strand, we provided evidence of a mutual will which was not validly revoked by a testator to set aside a later will made by the testator which was not in favour of the testator's spouse. We have successfully "warned off" caveats filed against the applicants for letters of administration in overseas jurisdiction, conducted relevant searches at the Probate Registry, provided advice to clients on the resealing of grants of administration and successfully prevented a deceased's estate being being taken into receivership pending the grant of letters of administration. Clients include individuals and families from the UK, India, Nigeria & USA.

RESIDENTIAL CONVEYANCING

We provided advice and representation to both landlords and tenants in respect of their rights in applications to acquire the freehold of leasehold houses and lease extensions of both flats and houses. We also advised property owners on short-term lettings for investment purposes and prospective tenants on the terms of tenancy agreements for occupation.Additional work done included;

Property conveyancing in England and Wales.
Cross border property trust litigation.
Remortgaging.
Advice on Cross border property finance.
Preparation of lease extensions.
Preparation of Licences to Assign.
Effecting Charge of property in the Land Registry.
A consideration of the effect of a freehold merger on existing underlease covenants and section 139 of the Law of Property Act 1925.

IMMIGRATION

We provided advice and representation on the following issues;

Preparation of work permit applications.
Rights of detainees in immigration matters .
Entry clearance for Highly Skilled Migrants, sole representatives of foreigncompanies, businessmen or those with self-employed status, self-employed writers, composers and artists, retired persons or independent means, investors and innovators, and students.
Advice in relation to the dependents of persons admitted under the above categories.
Advice as to rights of entry and leave to remain for spouses of British Citizens, EU Citizens and those settled in the UK.
Naturalisation.
Human rights applications.
EU issues.
Conduct of adjudicators and Tribunal appeals.
All tax, property and other issues arising out of immigration to the UK.

Other examples of recent work;

Applications for the highly skilled Migrant Programme.
Successful prosecution of Appeals of visa extension renewals by the Home Office and formulation of grounds of appeal.
Collaboration with a US specialist immigration law firm on the processing of US immigration visas for UK and African citizens and businesses that had been refused appropriate US B1/B2 visas or green card residency status by the US immigration authorities.