Vanderpump & Sykes

Matrimonial and Family Law

Partner

Peter has been working as a specialist Family Lawyer for over 20 years and has worked in both Central London and regional firms. He has a great deal of practical experience in settling all aspects of family disputes be they over the family finances or arguments over the childcare arrangements or ensuring protection for a victim of domestic abuse.

 

As society has developed so has the framework of the family, so that in recent years he has dealt increasingly with property disputes between unmarried couples which requires a lawyer to have knowledge and experience of a very different legal framework to that which applies on the breakdown of a marriage.

 

Whilst the legal principles may be different between separation on co-habitation and marriage, Peter fully recognises that that the emotional imperatives driving the separation are often the same and that his role is to assist his client to navigate the bewildering legal process, whist at the same time providing support and advice so as to ensure that outcome is not only fair but fully meets the financial and/or emotional needs of the client given the circumstances of the family.

 

With the benefit of 20 years of hindsight, Peter has become a passionate believer in the maxim  that “the client knows best” and where possible he seeks to ensure that the client remains in full control of fashioning their own future. This can best be achieved outside of the Court process in which the parties become cogs in a wheel where the decision about their futures is taken out of their hands and decided by a Judge. Instead Peter advocates the parties direct involvement in round table negotiations where they ultimately decide on the outcome.

 

This direct approach to problem solving is perhaps even more pertinent to settling disputes that involve children, than those that only have a direct bearing on their parents. Through his Collaborative law practice and by way of direct negotiation he has often been successful in encouraging parents to achieve resolution based on a tailor made contact framework decided upon by the parents themselves, rather than an off the shelf determination handed down by the Court.

 

Peter believes that the role of the Family practitioner is not to sit in his ivory tower and dispense legal advice, but instead to combine legal knowledge with day to day experience, to roll up one’s legal sleeves and get “stuck in” to achieving an outcome that the client expects.

 

Areas of “hands on” experience:

 Divorce – All aspects of local jurisdiction divorces including judicial separation petitions and nullity petitions. Foreign divorces including international forum races.

 Financial Orders – Both straightforward and complicated financial family arrangements involving company structures, family trusts and those with an international dimension. S. 37 injunctions freezing assets, Part III financial applications for a financial order in England and Wales on foreign divorce.

 Children Act Order – Child Arrangement orders, Specific Issue Orders, Prohibited Steps Orders, applications to remove a child permanently from the jurisdiction, Schedule 1 applications for financial provision for a child made by a parent.

 Family Law Act Orders – a non-molestation injunction preventing a party from threatening/abusive behaviour and/or communicating with the other party, an occupation injunction preventing a party from returning to the family home.

 TOLATA Order – application by a cohabitee/partner for an order for sale of a jointly owned property, a declaration as to beneficial interests in the joint property”

Obtained a BA Hons degree at the University of York