About Us

We are here to:

• Support and assist you in the conduct of your own family law matters.
• Support and assist you in the family court in our role as your McKenzie Friend.

We can support you in family law legal proceedings spanning Divorce, Child Custody, Financial Remedy Proceedings and Domestic Abuse. We can support you if you  are the “Applicant” in proceedings or the “Respondent” in proceedings.  We provide support across the following range of services:

1. Give you guidance on the options available to you. Provide you with advice about your case from a lay persons perspective.
2. Making applications to court. We can support and assist you in preparing and responding to applications to court.
3. Drafting Formal Court Documents.  We can support and assist you in drafting formal court documents such as the Form E in Financial Remedy Proceedings.
4. Drafting Position Statements and Witness Statements. We can support and assist you in preparing your position statements and witness statements.
5. Correspondence with the other party. We can support and assist you in your correspondence with the other party to proceedings.
6. Negotiations.  We can support and assist you in negotiating with the other party to proceedings both in and out of court.
7. Expert Witnesses. We can support and assist you in finding and drafting instructions to expert witnesses.
8. Drafting Orders. We can support and assist you in preparing Financial Consent Orders and Child Arrangements Orders for court approval.
9. Attend and support you in the court room. We can support you in court in our capacity as your McKenzie Friend.

As your lay advisor and McKenzie Friend you are allowed to communicate with us about all aspects of your family law proceedings. We treat all the information you share with us in the strictest confidence.

We cannot:

Act as your agent in relation to proceedings.  You must speak on your own behalf on all legal matters.  This means that all correspondence we assist you on must be sent by you in your name.  All applications to court and court documents must be filed by you in your name.  We cannot speak to the other party or their solicitors on your behalf.

Manage any aspects of your case outside of court.  We are not permitted to sign documents on your behalf.  We are not permitted to serve documents on your behalf. We are not permitted to receive service of documents, from court or from the other party, or their solicitor, on your behalf.

Address the court. We cannot speak for you in court.  We cannot cross examine the other party on your behalf.  Only in exceptional circumstances can we speak on your behalf  as explained in more detail in the section McKenzie Friends – Rights of Audience and Conduct of Litigation 

We mainly cover the family courts in the North East of England, including Chester le Street, Washington, Consett, Stanley, Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, Durham and Teesside,  but can support you in proceedings in any family court in England and Wales.

It is important to stress we are not solicitors or Chartered Legal Executives.  We do not have any affiliation with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) or any other regulatory body.  We are lay people who have significant lived experience of all aspects of private family law proceedings.  This means that you are responsible for conducting your case, also known as conducting litigation, but we can support you every step of the way.

Our Fees are transparent and significantly lower than solicitors.

The Need For Us

People involved in family law cases, specifically applications made under the Family Law Act 1996, Children Act 1989 and Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 ,can be placed in one of three categories.

Category 1: people who can afford to pay the court approved rate of £275 per hour plus VAT for an 8 year + qualified solicitor.

Category 2: people who have been the victim of Domestic Abuse and have low income with limited assets. They may still qualify for legal aid for some, or all, of their costs.

Category 3: people who cannot afford expensive Solicitors and do not qualify for legal aid.  This category represents the majority of people.

What this means is that too many people end up representing themselves as a litigant in person  and may have to do this when  the other party has legal representation.

According to the Family Law Statistics for July – Sept 2023,  only 30%  people have any form of legal representation in the family courts, leaving many struggling as litigants in person in making applications and filing documents without really knowing the process and expectations of the legal system.

The Legal Services Act 2007 stated that there are six “reserved activities” The two that are relevant to family law are:

1. The exercise of a right of audience.
2. The conduct of litigation.

In the family courts, solicitors have a right of audience. This means they have the right to appear before and address a court, including the right to call and examine witnesses. They also have the right to conduct litigation.  Most barristers however only have the right of audience.   People who do not have legal representation, known as litigants in person, have the right of audience and the right to conduct their own litigation.

The conduct of litigation is further defined in the Legal Services Act 2007 as:

a. The issuing of proceedings before any court in England and Wales.
b. The commencement, prosecution, and defence of such proceedings.
c. The performance of any ancillary functions in relation to such proceedings (such as entering appearances to actions).

As a litigant in person, you have the right to ask us, as lay people, to support you in the conduct of your case and the right to ask us, in our capacity as a McKenzie Friend, to assist you in court.