Divorce Lawyers get busy as Cheshire attains third-highest extra-marital dating status

The county with the country’s third highest membership of the UK’s largest “extra marital dating website”, IllicitEncounters.com, is Cheshire.

Affairs can obviously lead to divorce – but one leading divorce lawyer, Maria Taylor, Family Law solicitor of SAS Daniels, says that no matter how bitter the feelings, lips have to be bitten and couples consider a course of action aimed at taking the sting out of the separation.

“Ranting and raving, driving bitterness and anger may be satisfying in its way, but it is ultimately unhelpful and potentially very expensive: adopting a collaborative law approach, whereby the courts are avoided and the split and settlement discussed face-to-face, is winning many supporters, not least celebrities such as Robin Williams,” said Maria Taylor.

“Divorce is, sadly, becoming big business in Cheshire because of the sheer wealth in the county.

“While there are many reasons for a couple going their separate ways – or one choosing to instigate a split – there are two factors that inevitably come in to play.

“There’s the simple ‘sick and tired’ aspect – husband and wife simply get fed up of each other – or there’s the reason most people seem to believe is behind every divorce: one party is having an affair.

“Both factors come in to play as people start to feel the pressure of, for instance, the credit crunch: people will quickly crack if there’s the slightest fault-line in their relationship.

“Quite often it can be the case that if the husband or wife is having an affair – or even just getting closer to a workmate, family friend or new acquaintance – they’ll look for faults in their life partner and decide the grass in greener.

“Marriages are under enormous pressure: people are more liberated than ever before, they’re under pressure to make themselves more attractive and presentable, they’re under pressure at work, and they’re under financial pressure in many more cases than ever before – and sometimes the husband or wife gets the backlash. Collaborative law is a relatively new approach used by family lawyers to manage the divorce process wherein both parties agree to reach settlement without the courts’ involvement.

“With the high net worth of many Cheshire and South Manchester residents there is potential for some massive – and massively expensive – settlements, with highly paid legal teams battling out not just for money, but, dangerously, for pride,” said Maria Taylor.

“There is no doubt that going to court can not only cost a great deal more than is necessary, but taking that path could antagonise the judiciary as taking court action in such circumstances can sometimes be seen as wasting valuable time when the courts are already extremely busy.

“There are no winners from a divorce, and a protracted legal action can get painful, very personal and extremely expensive. A divorce involving people in the public eye is inevitably inflamed by the media, so the communication processes must be carefully considered.

“Speaking face-to-face is the only way to deal with the situation. Emails and texts between individuals can be misconstrued because there is no opportunity for crucial and potentially massively impactful intonation, and in recent years we have seen high-profile divorces becoming ever-more acrimonious because of the amount of debate going on via the media,” said Maria Taylor.

“Divorces, although sad, needn’t be acrimonious to the point where a court’s time is required, and at SAS Daniels we aim to negotiate a settlement to avoid court action.”

Maria Taylor is a member of Resolution and The Law Society Family Law Panel. Maria is a fully qualified Collaborative Lawyer and has practiced in this area since 2005. This is a specialist service offered by only a few solicitors in the whole of the Greater Manchester and surrounding areas. Maria specialises in most areas of family work, including divorce, financial provision, private law, Children Act matters and cohabitation disputes. She is experienced in dealing with complex, high-value Ancillary Relief claims and complicated Children Act cases, both in the County Court and at High Court level.

SAS Daniels has offices in Stockport, Macclesfield, Congleton, Bramhall and Chester.

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Further information:

Iain Macauley or Megan Codling

07788 978800 / 07795 848586

im@pressrelations.co.uk / mc@pressrelations.co.uk / www.sasdaniels.co.uk

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Further information: Iain Macauley or Megan Codling 07788 978800 / 07795 848586 im@pressrelations.co.uk / mc@pressrelations.co.uk / www.sasdaniels.co.uk