Supporting families across Hertfordshire with family law matters
Stowe Family Law’s St Albans team are highly experienced family lawyers helping clients across Hertfordshire to navigate family law issues, including division of investments, child arrangements, and spousal support.
Led by Managing Partner Phoebe Turner, our skilled and compassionate family lawyers are committed to providing clients in St Albans with the best possible legal advice and representation.
Clients across Hertfordshire can trust in Stowe’s family solicitors to provide clarity and peace of mind, whether they are looking to reach financial agreements during divorce or to make arrangements for children after separation.
Securing a child arrangements order
Stowe’s St Albans family law team recently handled a child arrangements case for a mother going through divorce. Communication with the father had broken down over time and they could no longer agree on the child arrangements between themselves.
Drawing on their child law expertise, our family solicitors were able to support our client to successfully negotiate a fair resolution with her ex-partner without the need for a court application.
By re-defining the arrangements for shared parental responsibility of the couple’s child with the benefit of legal advice and experience from a family lawyer, our client was able to consider all possibilities and find a workable solution that put the best interests of the child first.
Spousal support
More commonly referred to as spousal maintenance, spousal support is a regular payment that’s paid by the higher earner to the spouse with a lower income after divorce for a specific duration.
In a recent case involving a couple from St Albans, negotiations about the amount of spousal maintenance to be paid were proving difficult.
The couple had been married for 8 years and had two children, 6 and 3 years old. The husband was a director for a creative agency with a £150K plus annual salary. The wife worked on a part-time basis for a regional charity earning significantly less.
It had already been agreed the wife would stay in the former marital home until the youngest child was 18, when it would be sold and the equity split 50/50. However, it was calculated that the wife would struggle to meet living expenses on a part-time salary.
The team worked with the client to gain a clear understanding of her financial situation to gauge reasonable living expenses and establish that there was a shortfall, even after child maintenance was factored in.
The husband pushed back on this, even though it was revealed he had surplus income after all his reasonable needs were met.
After lengthy negotiations with the other legal team, the husband agreed to cover the shortfall until a mutually agreed point in time, at which point the spousal maintenance would be reviewed.
Division of investments on divorce
Our St Albans family lawyers help divorcing couples to reach financial settlements that are fair and incorporate all viable assets including property, savings, and investments built up during the marriage.
Once capital assets are identified, and an up-to-date valuation has been provided, the division of investments is calculated based on a number of factors and considerations.
Our family law team help clients to establish investments that are in scope such as bonds, stocks, shares, endowments and funds, with the support of our in-house forensic accountant where necessary.
From there we built a plan for separating assets in the divorce financial settlement and ensuring the best possible outcome for our clients.
Get in touch with Stowe Family Law St Albans today
Stowe Family Law is the largest specialist family law firm in the UK.
The St Albans office in Hertfordshire is one of the firm's many nationwide locations with Rachel Watson, Melanie Quinn and the rest of the team offering dedicated legal support to individuals and families dealing with family law matters such as divorce financial settlements, out of court divorce and spousal support.
Whether you are beginning family law proceedings to resolve your divorce, or looking for a family lawyer who can support you with divorce finances, the family solicitors at Stowe Family Laws' St Albans office can help you.
Stowe's Family Laws' St Albans office can be found at 3 Holywell Hill, in the heart of the town and close to St Albans City train station. We are just a 20 minute train journey from London St Pancras and easily accessible from Hertford, Rickmansworth and Radlett. Parking is available in the London Road pay and display car park behind our office. Our team of family lawyers in St Albans can be contacted on 01727 841875.
