International Family Law

The world is getting smaller. Our specialist international family law solicitors can assist you with:-

• Mirror pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements to regulate overseas property
• Divorce and/or financial proceedings in this jurisdiction following an overseas marriage or divorce
• Offshore assets on divorce
• International children disputes. We act for people who wish to take their children overseas, or wish to prevent applications to remove children from the jurisdiction. We also act for people based overseas who wish to maintain a relationship with their child in the UK
• Your legal rights following a religious ceremony carried out in England & Wales

We are members of MSI Global Alliance, an international association of 250 independent member firms of lawyers and accountants in more than 100 countries.

This enables our solicitors to quickly locate reliable, local expertise from anywhere in the world, which can be useful when we are dealing with international matters.

International divorce is a complex area, as financial and other outcomes can differ depending on which country proceedings are issued. It is therefore vital to act quickly and take urgent legal steps to protect the client's position.

It is common to find parties to a marriage involved in a race for the jurisdiction of their choice. Divorce proceedings may be issued in England, provided that:

• both parties are habitually resident in England & Wales
• both parties were last habitually resident in England & Wales and one of them continues to reside there
• the respondent is habitually resident in England & Wales
• the petitioner is habitually resident in England & Wales and has resided there for at least one year before the divorce petition is presented
• the petitioner is domiciled in England & Wales and has been habitually resident in England & Wales for at least six months before the divorce petition is presented
• the petitioner and the respondent are both domiciled in England & Wales

The English legal system has a reputation for being especially lenient towards the least wealthy spouse. This means that a spouse may receive a much higher financial award comparative to other jurisdictions.

In some instances, time may be of the essence where there are competing jurisdictions in which proceedings can be issued. If there is an international element to your relationship, you should speak to one of our solicitors as soon as possible.

We can advise you on the best place to issue proceedings and make sure that you protect yourself and your assets.

Financial matters on divorce can become more complicated where there are sophisticated ownership structures in place to disguise assets & reduce financial wealth.

Offshore assets may be held as a foreign holiday home, overseas foreign bank account or overseas pension fund.

Sometimes, assets are protected in offshore trusts following legitimate tax saving exercises. In other cases, assets may have been placed overseas in an attempt to dissipate assets.

Unfortunately, spouses may transfer money overseas or own offshore property or other assets, without the other spouse knowing. It is therefore important that you investigate the existence and nature of the international assets as far as possible, so that urgent steps can be taken to protect those assets and to prevent them from being dissipated.

We recognise that international cases require speedy and specialist input at an early stage.

At Myerson, we have experience of dealing with a wide range of jurisdictions from Europe, the Middle East, Israel, USA, the Caribbean and Australia including "tax havens" such as Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man & Luxembourg.

We regularly assist clients from all over the world with complex divorce, financial and child relocation disputes.