Our Ethos
Divorce forces decent people to make hard decisions in difficult circumstances. It is a very personal experience and is almost always about much more than the legal principles we are guided by. There is no one size fits all approach to family law. Every family is different so every divorce and every settlement is different. At Cambridge Family Matters, our primary purpose is to help our clients get through to the other side of divorce or separation with minimum damage, disruption and cost.
Most people would like to reduce the cost of their divorce. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) are encouraging legal professionals to be more transparent about costs and are encouraging solicitors to work for both clients, simultaneously, in order to reduce the emotional and financial cost of separation. The President of the Family Division (the leading judge in England and Wales) is calling for family law professionals to steer clients to the least adversarial, out of court options whenever appropriate. At Cambridge Family Matters, we believe in instructing lawyers for legal advice, financial advisers when finances are complex, actuaries when financial calculations are required such as when dividing pensions, divorce coaches when emotions are running high and therapists when people would benefit from more holistic psychological support. We believe that the days of leaning on your lawyer for all of these services are in the past. We believe in working with clients to reduce conflict and to find the least adversarial options for their circumstances.
The interests of your family are clearly and unambiguously the focus of our work, as well as cost consciousness, and we ensure that, first and foremost, we listen to you and understand what you want from the process. We see it as our duty to continually explore ways to make your experience of divorce or separation the least damaging and least costly for all concerned.
We find that in helping parties to work together, encouraging clients to put their children first and steering people towards the right support at each stage of the process, free from any fee earning targets, we offer a procedure that suits more families than conflict and litigation and almost always costs considerably less.
There is plenty to consider before deciding on your best route through divorce or separation. In family law, it is not always the biggest guns who achieve the best outcomes for families. Whether your case is straightforward or requires court appearances, you have a number of options with different price implications to consider.
A careful assessment of your circumstances could indicate that the most appropriate support might involve financial advisers, family consultants, mediators, mediators who can also arbitrate the sticky issues between you, arbitrators or simply a clear and inexpensive explanation of the legal principles which guide your circumstances. Your circumstances might present complicated legal or financial conundrums, in which case a senior lawyer or Direct Access barrister could well be your best and possibly even most cost-effective option.
At our Initial Meeting, we discuss your circumstances with you and will point you in the right direction towards the right professionals for your circumstances, even if that means recognising when we are not the right professionals for you. We strive to offer the appropriate level of support whilst keeping costs to a minimum and suggesting other professional support where appropriate.