Family Law
Enoch Evans has a team of highly experienced and dedicated family law lawyers that offer compassionate, straight forward advice to help you find the best outcome for your children, your finances, your businesses, your future and you.
We offer our family services in Walsall, Sutton Coldfield, Cannock & the surrounding areas.
With their expertise in sensitive areas, and in emotionally challenging situations, it’s important to protect what matters to you and secure the future for yourself and your loved ones. Our team can support you.
There are a myriad of issues that can affect you and your family over the course of your life and the Family Law team at Enoch Evans are on hand to support and guide you through these as calmly and efficiently as possible.
Our team can support you with:
Divorce Proceedings & Separation
Divorce and the breakdown of a relationship can be a difficult, stressful and emotional time. It can be difficult to know where to turn when faced with making important decisions about your future.
Our specialist Family Law solicitors can provide the detailed expert advice needed in these circumstances.
Civil Partnership Dissolution Proceedings
When a civil partnership breaks down there can be a number of issues that need addressing. Advice will be needed in respect of any financial issues and any childcare arrangements.
Ending a civil partnership is similar to obtaining a divorce. There are rules that apply and a process that you and your partner will need to go through to end your legal relationship. Our Family lawyers will help you navigate through this process.
Financial Matters
Finances are a vital concern when a relationship breaks down. Our experts can assist with applications for financial orders for you and the benefit of any children.
Our Family Law solicitors are experts in helping sort finances out when couples decide to separate. Providing you with clear, pragmatic advice with strong expertise in dispute resolution helps them to achieve a fair settlement that works for you all.
Alternative Dispute Resolution including Mediation and Arbitration
Instead of going to Court you can choose to deal with the legal consequences of your relationship breakdown, separation or divorce using mediation, collaborative law or arbitration.
These processes will allow you and your former partner to talk through your problems with our professional support and advice. Our family law team’s objective is to work out solutions that are right for you and your family with the right amount of professional support that you need.
We can help restore the lines of communication and provide impartial guidance to help negotiate a swifter, more amicable and affordable resolution to family disputes.
Pre and Post Nuptial Agreements
Our expert family law solicitors specialise in the drafting of pre and post-nuptial agreements.
Before entering into marriage both parties should ensure that any pre-existing assets are suitably protected through a formal written contract. Whilst contemplating the breakdown of a marriage is something none of us wish to consider, enlisting a experts to assist in the drafting of a pre-nuptial agreement can offer you peace of mind should that eventuality occur.
Additionally, our team also specialise in the drafting of post-nuptial agreements, entered after the marriage.
Cohabitation Agreements
If you live with your partner without getting married, it can create difficulties if you later separate when it comes to dividing your finances, deciding what happens to your shared home and sorting out other practical details.
Cohabitation agreements can cover everything from the payment of child maintenance and property costs after a break-up, to the delegation of household chores, yet can be complex and confusing
Our family law teams, based in our Sutton Coldfield, Walsall and Cannock offices can help you negotiate and draw up a cohabitation agreement that works for both parties, giving you certainty for the future and helping to minimise any conflict if you do later separate.
Injunctions (Including Non Molestation/Occupation Order Proceedings)
Unfortunately, sometimes when a relationship breaks down, it can result in physical, verbal or emotional abuse. The Enoch Evans Family Law team can also offer support and guidance in these difficult circumstances and assistance to support through the Civil Courts.
Under the Family Law Act 1996 there are two main types of Orders which can be obtained from the Court;
A Non-Molestation Order can forbid your spouse/partner from:
- Using or threatening violence against you (and your children)
- Intimidating, harassing or pestering you (and your children)
- Going to areas/addresses he/she knows you (and your children) are living or visiting regularly i.e. School.
An Occupation Order will require your spouse/partner to vacate your property.
Parental Responsibility
A parent has a legal responsibility to ensure that their children are cared for and protected whether they live with that child or not. This is known as parental responsibility and includes:
- making sure they have a home that is safe
- ensuring they receive proper education
- ensuring they receive proper medical care
- making sure they are properly fed and clothed
Having parental responsibility is often key to protecting your rights as a parent, but sadly not every parent automatically has it. If you are unsure whether you have parental responsibility for your child or need to legally secure parental responsibility, our expert team of family lawyers can help. Our team can advise how to obtain Parental Responsibility for a child and make applications to the Court on your behalf.
Change of Name
If you wish to change your name or the name of your child, our experienced Family Law team can assist you in creating a legally recognised Change of Name Deed.
We can provide advice on all of the necessary documents, options, costs and timescales, and advise on whose consent is required and on what Court applications may be available.
Child Arrangements Orders
A Child Arrangements Order is a legally binding Order created to ensure the welfare of a child. The Order defines who a child is to reside with and with whom they should have contact.
Our Family Law experts recognise that making arrangements for children is often the most emotionally challenging part of divorce and separation, and their expertise in alternative dispute resolution can be highly beneficial.
Working with you to find amicable agreements on where your children will live and what contact each parent will have, our Family Law team can help remove unnecessary conflict and achieve a better outcome for you and your children.
Specific Issue Orders
Specific Issue Orders– to make a specific decision about a child’s upbringing, such as where they should go to school.
Prohibited Steps Orders
A prohibited steps order is a type of Court Order used by one parent to stop another parent making certain decisions about their child’s upbringing as set out by the Court. These can have the following results:
- Stopping a parent from allowing a child to have contact with a certain person
- Ensuring a child’s surname isn’t changed
- Making sure a parent doesn’t remove a child from the jurisdiction (England & Wales)
- Preventing the geographical relocation of the child within the country.
Prohibited Steps Orders have a large impact on the way in which a parent is able to exercise their Parental Responsibility and for that reason they are not made lightly.
The specialist advice our Family law team can provide can guide you through this process. Our teams are based in Cannock, Walsall and Sutton Coldfield.
Grandparents Rights
When relationships break down, sadly it is often grandparents who lose out when it comes to child arrangements which can be distressing for both grandparents and grandchildren.
Contrary to popular belief, grandparents do not have the automatic right to have contact with their grandchild – however a grandparent can seek the court’s permission to make a Child Arrangements Order.
Our team of expert family lawyers, can simplify this process by providing clear and concise advice to guide grandparents.
To speak to our specialist Family Law team, please email MIF@enoch-evans.co.uk or, alternatively, fill in the enquiry form on the right-hand side of the page to ask us a question.