Domestic abuse in English law now includes controlling or coercive behaviour and economic abuse, not only violence, and that change has brought people to family law solicitors in Wolverhampton who once thought they had no case. A partner who controls the bank account, monitors the phone or cuts someone off from family in Punjab or Jamaica can be the subject of a non-molestation order; an occupation order can remove them from the home. Both can be obtained from the family court inside the Combined Court Centre on Pipers Row within days, and legal aid is still available for victims who can show evidence of the abuse.
The rest of a Wolverhampton family solicitor's work is quieter but no less important. Separating parents are expected to attend a mediation information and assessment meeting, and usually to try mediation itself, before they apply for a child arrangements order; Cafcass reports on the children's welfare where an application is made, and grandparents, who play a large part in family life across the Black Country, can apply for contact of their own. Care proceedings brought by the City of Wolverhampton Council are heard at the same court, and parents facing them qualify for legal aid regardless of means.
Unmarried couples, of whom Wolverhampton has many, discover on separation that the law gives them none of the protections of marriage: the house goes by the deeds and the contributions, not by fairness, which is why a declaration of trust or cohabitation agreement signed at the outset is worth far more than it costs. Prenuptial agreements are increasingly requested where one partner owns a business or land in South Staffordshire, and marriages conducted abroad sometimes need to be proved before a court will act on them.
Charges are usually fixed for agreed arrangements and simple orders, hourly for contested cases, with a free first meeting at many firms.
Below are the family law firms serving Wolverhampton, with verified practices at the top. Background reading: what family law covers and our guide to family law solicitors; if a divorce is also needed, divorce solicitors in Wolverhampton and the divorce process explain that side.
