When parents separate on either side of the Dee, the first thing a family law solicitor in Chester checks is where the children live, because that decides which welfare service reports to the court: Cafcass in England, Cafcass Cymru in Wales. The law is identical and the court may well be the Chester Civil and Family Justice Centre either way, but schools, health and social services differ, and relocation across a border that most people barely notice can still change a child's schooling and language of education.
The bulk of the work is familiar. Arrangements for children are settled in mediation wherever possible, after the information and assessment meeting the court expects before an application, with the agreement drafted into a consent order. Contested applications are decided by the family court in Chester, which also hears care proceedings brought by Cheshire West and Chester Council and, for families over the border, by Flintshire or Wrexham. Legal aid remains available for parents in care proceedings regardless of means, and for victims of domestic abuse seeking non-molestation and occupation orders, obtainable within days.
Cheshire's prosperity brings its own questions. Farming and business families ask for prenuptial and postnuptial agreements before a second marriage or a transfer of the farm to the next generation; unmarried partners who have lived in a house owned by one of them for years discover on separation that the law gives them very little without a declaration of trust or a cohabitation agreement; and grandparents apply to keep contact with grandchildren after a divorce.
Fees in Chester follow the usual pattern: a free or fixed-fee first meeting, fixed prices for uncontested applications, hourly rates once a case is fought.
Family law firms for Chester follow, verified first; the Cheshire search reaches the rest of the county. The primer what family law covers and the general family law solicitors page give the background; the divorce and the finances have their own page, divorce solicitors in Chester.
