Every year, family lawyers across Scotland return to business in January to a flood of new clients and enquiries around the subject of divorce. Sadly, the burden of joyous expectation brought by Christmas can often be the final straw for couples, just as we have seen with the recent spate of celebrity casualties including Russell Brand and Michelle Mone. Lisa Girdwood, Glasgow based Partner of Simpson & Marwick’s Family Law team, gives Informed Edinburgh an insight into this tricky process and how to overcome it, in the best way possible. “Children may be damaged as a consequence of parental acrimony. Families are fractured and social networks undermined. There is also no doubt that in this current economic climate, families face uncertainty with asset values declining, meaning that families can often face that added pressure of financial insecurity”.
As a result, those that are wishing to separate are facing an increasingly complicated time. Declining house values, uncertainty over pensions, fluctuating share prices and insolvency are all factors which require consideration in the context of significant emotional distress. Like many family lawyers, Ms Girdwood is aware that a new trend is emerging amongst separating couples as a result of their personal financial circumstances and recessionary pressures: “With the difficulty in selling homes and uncertainty in facing life as a single parent with drained financial resources, many couples have no alternative but to live separate lives under the same roof. Such living arrangements hardly provide the ideal family, for adults and children, alike.
Girdwood stresses that for every couple who wish to divorce, there are solutions available even for the most complex living arrangements and financial problems, advisory areas in which Simpson & Marwick’s partner led Family Law and Property teams specialise. Family lawyers can provide couples whose personal and business lives seem to be inextricably linked with effective means of unravelling their interests, without necessarily unravelling the business or indeed the clients themselves.
The role of a family lawyer in our complex society is no longer about getting the papers signed, it is to provide families facing breakdown with a comprehensive range of solutions and methods of resolution which attempt to minimise the emotional and financial costs borne by both adults and children in separation. Whilst the conventional divorce process can entrench positions and make co-operative relationships impossible, Simpson & Marwick’s Family Law Team – which includes accredited specialist Partners in three Scottish locations: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen – has developed a strategy which is designed to provide clients with innovative and personalised legal solutions. Their Team members offer collaborative law, mediation and arbitration to prospective clients; all methods of resolving disputes that can really benefit clients that would otherwise be facing bleak times in their personal lives.
Collaborative law is a movement which is now thriving in Scotland. Whilst conventional litigation weds clients and solicitors to “positions”, collaborative law encourages clients to formulate their own solutions with the support of their solicitors. Girdwood believes it is effective as it emphasises fairness and attempts to eliminate confrontation, putting couples in control. “Typically, divorce clients imagine that instructing a solicitor will make an already painful process even more difficult. In our collaborative practice we find that clients are empowered by us to formulate their own solutions and outcomes, focussing on their shared interests, for example the care of children”. Collaborative law should not, however, be mistaken as a “soft option” in the divorce process. Solicitors and their clients tackle very complex and challenging issues, both financial and personal. Even the most complex business structures and financial provision cases can be resolved using the collaborative process. Whilst Simpson and Marwick clearly has the capacity and specialist knowledge to appear in the courts of Scotland, by embracing innovative methods of alternative dispute resolution, the firm has created a nationwide model which enables it to provide a unique, comprehensive range of solutions to clients throughout the country.
