Family law in Newcastle is done in a modern building on Barras Bridge, opposite the Civic Centre and a short walk from Haymarket, where the family court for the city and much of the North East sits alongside the county court and the employment tribunal. Urgent applications, children cases, financial remedy hearings and care proceedings are all listed there, and family law solicitors in Newcastle are in and out of it daily.
The cases are the ones a large city generates. Separated parents disputing where a child lives or how often the other parent sees them, after the mediation information and assessment meeting that must come first; relocation disputes when one parent wants to move for work to Leeds, London or abroad; grandparents in Byker or Benwell seeking contact or, increasingly, raising the children themselves under a special guardianship order. Newcastle City Council brings care proceedings where children are at risk, and parents in those cases qualify for legal aid whatever their means, as do victims of domestic abuse seeking a non-molestation or occupation order, which the court can grant within days and sometimes the same day.
Cohabiting couples are the growing part of the caseload. Tyneside has many couples who bought a flat together without marrying, and when they separate the property is divided by trust law rather than family law, which can leave the partner who paid less with less. A declaration of trust at purchase, or a cohabitation agreement, prevents most of the arguments. Prenuptial agreements are asked for by couples marrying later in life and by those with a family business to protect.
Most Newcastle family solicitors offer a fixed-fee first meeting and hourly rates for contested work; mediation is usually cheaper than either.
Family firms serving Newcastle are listed below, verified first. Read what family law covers and the general family law solicitors guide; for the divorce itself see divorce solicitors in Newcastle, and County Durham families have the Durham page.
