Southall has a long record of women's organisations that have changed the law on domestic abuse, forced marriage and honour-based violence, and family law solicitors in Ealing work in that tradition. Non-molestation and occupation orders can be obtained from the West London Family Court in Feltham within days, often without the other party knowing until the order is served, and forced marriage protection orders are available for anyone at risk, including a young person who fears being taken abroad. Legal aid covers this work for those who qualify, and the evidence rules have been loosened, so a solicitor should be asked about it at the first meeting rather than assumed to be unaffordable.
Children are the other half of the job. After a separation in Ealing the usual sequence is a mediation information and assessment meeting, an attempt at agreement, and only then an application to the family court for a child arrangements order deciding where a child lives and how time is shared. Cafcass reports on welfare where the parents cannot agree. Relocation cases, where one parent wants to take a child to the Punjab, Poland or elsewhere, are a regular feature in a borough with so many international families, and so are cases where a child has already been taken.
Unmarried couples in Ealing are often surprised that cohabitation gives them almost no rights over each other's property; a declaration of trust on a shared flat in Acton or a cohabitation agreement protects both. Care proceedings brought by Ealing Council attract legal aid for parents regardless of income, and grandparents and other relatives sometimes need advice about special guardianship.
Most Ealing family solicitors offer a fixed-fee first meeting, fixed fees for simple consent orders and hourly rates for contested work.
Family law firms serving Ealing are listed below, verified firms first and then by distance. Read what family law covers, the general family law solicitors guide, and for the divorce itself the divorce solicitors in Ealing page.
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