Leathes Prior: Accredited Family Law Specialist
All of the Leathes Prior Family team lawyers are members of Resolution, formerly the Solicitors Family Law Association (SFLA).
Resolution is a national organisation of family lawyers whose members agree to abide by a Code of Practice. Members are committed to dealing with matters in a non-confrontational manner which, amongst other things, includes avoiding the use of inflammatory language, retaining professional objectivity and respect, taking into account the long term consequences of actions as well as the short term implications, encouraging clients to put the best interests of the children first, emphasising the importance of being open and honest and keeping children and financial issues separate.
In addition to being a member of Resolution, Alisdair Douglas , Head of the Family team is recognised as an Accredited Specialist of Resolution in relation to both financial provision and children matters, is recognised by the Law Society as an Advanced Family Lawyer and is a Resolution Trained Mediator and Collaborative Lawyer.
Resolution Specialist
The Resolution Accreditation Scheme is designed to help people who are facing family difficulties to make an informed choice about which solicitor they should appoint.
Accredited Specialists of Resolution are recognised as proven experts in different areas of family law, such as financial provision on divorce or matters involving children. If you have a particular problem in a certain area of family breakdown, you can be sure that a Resolution Specialist accredited in that field will be able to help you.
To become a Resolution Accredited Specialist members must submit themselves to demanding assessments to demonstrate the highest levels of knowledge, best practice and practical application of the law.
Alisdair Douglas , Head of the Family team at Leathes Prior not only has 15 years experience in practising family law, but is also a Resolution Accredited Specialist in relation to both financial provision on divorce and children matters.
Law Society Advanced Family Law Accreditation
The Law Society operates accreditation schemes in order to promote high standards in legal service provision, ensure that clients are able to identify experts in a given area of law, help clients make informed choices about which solicitor to instruct and ensure that panel members maintain relevant standards of competency and expertise.
In addition to being acknowledged as a Resolution Specialist, Alisdair Douglas has been awarded Law Society recognition as an Advanced Specialist in respect of both financial provision on divorce and children matters. Being awarded the Advanced Accreditation means that Alisdair has demonstrated his ability to provide advice and assistance to clients in particularly complex and/or high-value family law cases for example; divorces involving large property portfolios, farming partnerships, family businesses and inheritances; or children matters involving cross border issues or criminal allegations.
Resolution Trained Mediator
Mediation is not only a desirable way to settle family disputes but also an essential pre-cursor to litigation in many situations. The new Family Procedure Rules state that, except in certain limited circumstances, a party must attend a mediation assessment meeting prior to issuing Court proceedings.
To ensure that they meet certain standards, family mediators should be properly trained. Resolution, formerly the Solicitors Family Law Association (SFLA), provides high quality training to delegates, so you can be sure that if a mediator is Resolution Trained they will be best positioned to help deal with family disputes in a way which both parties are happy with.
Mediation involves both parties meeting with a neutral mediator who is trained to help people resolve family disputes and enable parties to talk matters through to try and reach an agreement which they are both happy with. The parties can either talk face to face or can be in separate rooms, with the mediator going between them.
Mediation can prove to be much more time and cost effective than litigation.
Resolution Accredited Collaborative Lawyer
Collaborative law is the process by which each party has their own lawyer and you all meet together in the same room to work things out face to face. The collaborative process is not driven by a timetable or deadlines, so you can meet as many or few times and as frequently or infrequently as you require in order to resolve the dispute. The idea of the collaborative process is to avoid going to Court.
The collaborative process allows the parties to decide what their priorities are and how they wish matters to proceed, so the process is tailored to each family’s needs and circumstances.
The process also allows the involvement of other professionals such as independent financial or mortgage advisors who can ensure that any prospective agreement meets the needs and is fair both parties.
All of the professionals, both lawyers and other advisors, involved in the collaborative process must be accredited as a Collaborative Specialist.
Alisdair Douglas is a Resolution Accredited Family Lawyer. If you think that collaborative law might be the best option for your family please feel free to contact Alisdair for a no obligation chat.
If you are involved in a family dispute and wish to seek legal advice, please feel free to call us on 01603 610911 or 01603 281132 or email us at adouglas@leathesprior.co.uk
Alisdair Douglas Alisdair Douglas Leathes Prior Family team Published on 2012-01-27 11:30:52
