Two pensions, two houses and one relationship: a growing number of the couples who come to family law solicitors in Chichester are in their sixties or seventies, living together after earlier marriages, and have never asked what happens if the relationship ends. The law is unkind to them. An unmarried partner has no claim on the other's pension, no automatic right to stay in a house held in the other's name and no share of an estate without a will. A cohabitation agreement, a declaration of trust and a pair of wills, drafted together, prevent most of the trouble, and a prenuptial agreement does the same for those who decide to marry.
Children cases are fewer than in a city of young families, but they have their own patterns. Parents separated between Chichester and Portsmouth or Brighton argue over schools and handovers along the A27; army families at Thorney Island face postings; grandparents, numerous here, apply for contact when a parent's relationship with them breaks down. All of it starts with a mediation information and assessment meeting, and the cases that cannot be settled go to the family court serving the area, with Cafcass reporting on the child.
Domestic abuse is not confined to the young: a Chichester solicitor can obtain a non-molestation or occupation order within days, with legal aid for the applicant, and coercive and financial control of an older partner is increasingly recognised. Care proceedings brought by West Sussex County Council attract legal aid for the parents regardless of means, and the city's children panel solicitors represent them.
Chichester firms usually offer a fixed-fee or free first meeting, fixed fees for cohabitation and prenuptial agreements, and hourly rates for contested work.
Family law firms serving Chichester are listed below, verified firms first. Read what family law covers and the general family law solicitors guide, or go to divorce solicitors in Chichester for the divorce; the will solicitors in Chichester page covers the wills.
