A parent in Bloomsbury is offered a post-doctoral position in Boston. The other parent, in Kentish Town, says the children are not going. Relocation disputes of this kind are a Camden speciality, because the universities and hospitals recruit from everywhere, contracts end, and a move home or onward is always on the table. Taking a child abroad to live needs the other parent's agreement or a court order, and the Central Family Court on High Holborn, in the borough itself, decides the contested cases, with the High Court a few minutes away for Hague Convention abductions.
That court hears everything else too. Arrangements for children after separation follow a mediation information and assessment meeting unless an exemption applies; domestic abuse cases produce non-molestation and occupation orders, often on the day of application; and Camden Council's children's services bring care proceedings in which parents are entitled to legal aid without a means test. Camden's families are often unmarried, and the cohabitation cases that follow a split over a flat in West Hampstead or Kentish Town are decided under trusts law, not family law, which comes as an unwelcome surprise to the partner whose name is not on the title.
Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements are asked for by couples with a Hampstead house in one family's name or a stake in a King's Cross start-up, and are respected by the courts when both sides were advised and nothing was hidden. Grandparents, step-parents and same-sex parents raise questions about parental responsibility that a Camden family solicitor will have met before.
Fees are hourly for contested work and fixed for agreements and straightforward orders; legal aid remains available for domestic abuse victims and in care cases.
Family law firms serving Camden are listed below, verified first. See what family law covers, the general family law solicitors guide, divorce solicitors in Camden for the divorce itself and family law solicitors in London for the wider capital.
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