A posting order can undo a carefully negotiated contact arrangement in an afternoon. Service families around RAF Northolt, and airline families whose rosters change monthly, make up a larger share of the family law caseload in Hillingdon than in most boroughs, and local solicitors draft child arrangements orders flexible enough to survive a deployment, and go back to court quickly when circumstances shift.
The framework is the same as everywhere in England. Separated parents attend a mediation information and assessment meeting before applying to the court, most disputes settle and are recorded in a consent order, and where they do not, the West London Family Court in Feltham decides with the help of a Cafcass report. Where a parent fears that a child will be taken abroad, and in a borough that contains Heathrow that fear is often concrete, a prohibited steps order and a port alert can be obtained the same day. Hillingdon's international families also bring questions about relocation to India, Pakistan or Poland, and about marriages and divorces conducted abroad.
Domestic abuse injunctions, non-molestation and occupation orders, are available quickly and attract legal aid for those who qualify. Care proceedings are a particular feature of the borough: Hillingdon Council is responsible for many unaccompanied children who arrive at Heathrow, and parents, relatives and young people in those proceedings are entitled to legal aid without a means test. Unmarried couples, including the many students and graduates around Brunel University, should know that cohabitation gives few rights and that a cohabitation agreement or declaration of trust cures that.
A first appointment with a Hillingdon family solicitor is usually a fixed price, with contested work charged hourly.
The family law firms serving Hillingdon appear below, verified firms first. For a fuller picture of the law, read our family law explainer and the page on family law solicitors in general; the divorce itself is covered on the divorce solicitors in Hillingdon page and the divorce process explainer.
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