Contact our International Family Solicitors & Experts who work across the country, including in London, Manchester & Birmingham
In difficult times, our specialist, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team of international family solicitors & experts can offer you expert advice, guidance and representation in all aspects of your family life, including relationship breakdown, divorce, separation, family finances and issues relating to children.
Expert International Family Law Services in the UK:
Our specialist Family Law team are regularly instructed in cases that have international elements. The Team has a particular expertise in representing clients in cross-border matters involving family law proceedings in the UK where one party may have an international connection. In parallel to the Team’s international operations, it also thrives off its healthy national practice dealing with client’s within the UK. So whether you are living in the UK or abroad and are considering or facing legal action, you should take advice at the earliest opportunity and speak to our top rated Family Law team today.
In addition to the expertise that the Team has in dealing with divorces and financial matters arising out of the breakdown of a relationship, they are extremely able to assist in the following other matters:
Cohabitation claims (usually under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996);
Protective order applications (including for non-molestation order and occupation order applications);
When a couple wish to formally end their marriage or civil partnership, the parties will need to apply to the court and submit an application to the court (either together or in their sole name). Our Team can explain and offer a helping hand for each stage of the process and provide assistance and guidance for any connected issues (such as how the assets and possessions will be divided and future arrangements for any children of the family). Our Team are specialists in matters revolving are the breakdown of family relationships with an international element.
There are some circumstances where a couple may wish to separate from their spouse/partner without obtaining a divorce of their marriage or a dissolution. However they may also want to formalise an agreement they have reached about their property, savings, childcare arrangements, debts, mortgage and bills, possessions, etc.. We can advise you in respect of a “separation agreement” and other related issues to help steer you through what can be a very difficult process.
It is always desirable for parents to come to an agreement in respect of the arrangements for their children, such as, where the children should live, who they should spend time with, holiday contact, and taking a child abroad whether temporarily or permanently. Our expert UK solicitors can advise you on the best possible solutions for you and your family, including to help you formalize any agreement reached and/or to help you through the court process if any agreement is not possible.
During a divorce or dissolution, it is important to consider how the family home and other financial assets and possessions will be divided. There are a number of ways to achieve this, for example through negotiations to try and achieve an agreed way forward or by applying to the court for an order. Where an agreement has been reached, we can help with the drafting of and application for a consent order to be approved by the courts. Where an agreed settlement cannot be achieve, the Team can provide you with expert assistance in relation to the court process.
“Cohabitees” are people who live together and they include people who are not married or in a civil partnership. They do not have the same legal rights as married couples of those in civil partnerships but they do have rights and disputes (usually involving the division of property) often do arise. We can advise you on cohabitation agreements and other steps available to clarify and protect your rights, including; making a will, drafting deeds of trust, buying property together, when one partner owns the property. The Team can also assist with other issues like ensuring parental responsibility in respect of your children, child maintenance and financial support available (for example under Schedule 1 Children Act 1989). Get in touch with our expert UK solicitors today to make an enquiry.
A properly drafted pre-nuptial agreement (“pre-nup”) or post-nuptial agreement can help all couples avoid disputes about their finances and assets on the breakdown of their relationships. Professional assistance is always advisable with these technical documents, which can be entered into before you enter into a marriage or civil partnership, during it and even when a relationship comes to an end. We can draft and advise you on all forms and aspects of these nuptial agreements, just get in touch.
Child Abduction is the process by which one parent takes or keeps a child abroad without the expressed consent of the other person with parental responsibility or the permission of the court. For more details about your rights as a parent facing this sort of situation, please contact us so that we can best advise you on your options. Our multi-cultural International Family Law Solicitors & Experts are highly trained and knowledgeable in all aspects of family law and are well placed to the provide rapid and specialist advice that often results the best possible outcomes for you.
Our multi-cultural International Family Law Solicitors are highly trained and knowledgeable in all aspects of family law and will do their utmost to secure the best possible outcome for you.
Contact Our Expert International Family Lawyers
Our offices are based in the UK and are located in Manchester, London and Birmingham. Contact our specialist international family law team today on 0330 107 0107 or request a call back.
Example of cases we have dealt with:
F v F - Acted for a German husband in a complex financial remedy matter. He decided to instruct IMD Solicitors after he had lost trust in his previously instructed solicitors and feared that he would not achieve a favourable outcome from the proceedings. The relevant assets were spread across the globe with some located in the UK (including a multi-million pound business), Gibraltar, Spain, Dubai, and Poland. The overall value of assets exceeded £24 million. The husband had been cut off from the matrimonial assets and excluded from control of the business that had been established by his family. The case involved the instruction of numerous experts, for business valuations, Capital Gains Tax reports, and opinions on the enforcement of orders in foreign jurisdictions, and dealing with several applications, including applications for orders to freeze assets, prevent the disposition of assets, for the joinder of parties, and to litigate conduct issues. The final result exceeded the client’s expectations.
L v L - We were instructed by a mother in a complex international children matter. She was required by orders of the UK courts to return the child to the UK from Poland. She had travelled with the child to Poland but, following unsuccessful application to extend her stay there in August 2017, she decided not to return to the UK because the child disclosed sexual abuse by a member of the paternal family and the father. In September 2018, the Polish court dismissed the father’s Hague Convention application for the child's return on the basis of Article 13(b), a decision which the father appealed. In March 2019, the father applied to the UK High Court for an order for the child’s return pursuant to the procedure set out in Article 11(6) – (8) of the Brussels IIA Regulation. Despite the father's unsuccessful Hague Convention application in Poland, the UK court ordered the return of the child. Article 11 does not allow the court of the returning country much discretion. After all of this, the mother instructed IMD Solicitors to apply to discharge the orders of the UK Court for the return of the child. Even in the face of the fact that most applications to discharge such return orders fail, we succeeded. We are currently awaiting a decision in the UK courts on a further application for the transfer of jurisdiction to the Polish courts where the mother resides with the child.
G v P - We represent a Spanish mother in respect of an urgent application for a Child Arrangements Order and Specific Issue Order in the UK seeking the relocation of the child to Spain. This was after the return of the child to the UK under Hague Convection proceedings which this mother lost in Spain.
She was asking for an order for the relocation of the child back to Spain and an urgent interim Child Arrangements Order to allow her to see the child pending the final outcome of the UK proceedings. IMD successfully argued that, regardless of the return of the child to the UK under the Hague Convention, the mother should be allowed unsupervised overnight contact with the child. We were delighted to be able to secure her contact with the child for Christmas and she said that it was the best Christmas gift she could have wished for. The outcome of the application for the relocation is pending.
S v V - We currently represent the father in Child Arrangements Order proceedings issued by the mother in relation to variation of a UK order made in the face of numerous other international proceedings. He is an Italian National who has been living in France for the last 20 years and the mother is a Lithuanian national. The child is now 11 years old and proceedings concerning the child have been ongoing in various jurisdictions for the majority of the child`s life. Contested divorce proceedings including child arrangements took place in Monaco. The French Court and authorities were also involved, and various proceedings had been ongoing between parties since 2013 in France and Monaco.
The parties’ divorce was pronounced in Monaco. Thereafter, in December 2020, the mother submitted an application to relocate to England with the child, and the relocation took place in June 2021. Upon relocation, the she lodged a child arrangement order application, seeking to register a judgment made in Monaco and to vary the same in respect of the contact arrangements between the father and the child. The father seeks for the child’s return to Monaco.
Due to the parties’ mutual allegations and the associated international elements, various authorities and courts that have been involved in the case, the local authority has become involved with the family and a guardian has been instructed to represent the child in the UK proceedings. At present, these proceedings in England are ongoing and the outcome of the professional reports regarding the family are awaited.
P v P - We have acted for the Respondent Husband in relation to the financial remedy proceedings in the UK. The parties had various assets in the UK and Romania consisting mainly of the portfolio of properties but conduct issues were raised by the Wife due to a business of the Husband over which she had lost control and her allegations of dissipation of assets. The value of assets excluding the business were in a region of £3 million.
K v K - We act in financial remedy proceedings for a wife who is a Polish national. The matter's complexity mainly comes from a dispute between the parties around land in Poland. Its value was initially in dispute but was then assessed by a joint expert to be in the region of half a million pounds. The total assets in this case are estimated to be worth over £1 million. The land in Poland is a subject to contract with a third party and is being leased as a photovoltaic (solar) farm. The division of the land to achieve an equal share of the assets is complicated due to the contract in place and plans for the future use of the land. Currently the parties are awaiting a final hearing but efforts are being made to reach a settlement with the aid of alternative dispute resolution and in order to save the parties money and avoid further delays.
R v O - We acted pro bono and worked together with a law firm in Poland to ensure that the Costa Rican Mother regains access to her child. The Mother's only child was abducted from the UK in 2014. The Mother was successful with the abduction case and the UK family courts ordered the return of the child. The orders were recognised in Poland but unfortunately due to various issues with the Mother's immigration status and court's delays in Poland, the orders were never enforced. The Mother was facing removal from the UK and prospects of never seeing her child again. We have corresponded with various courts in Poland dealing with international abduction matters and we decided that an application for contact should be issued rather than any proceedings for further enforcement of the orders, as the Mother had not seen the child for around 7 years. At the same we secured the Mother's stay in the UK making successful outside of immigration rules application to extend her stay. We now receive regular photos from the Mother with her daughter, as face to face contact is taking place. We helped to secure an order of the Polish courts for the Mother to see the child regularly in person, whilst when she instructed us she was facing a prospect of never seeing her child again and being deported to Costa Rica.
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