Pictured: Sarah Martin with Phil Barnsley, head of Higgs'
family department
Award-winning legal firm Higgs & Sons is strengthening its
family team with a new associate, coinciding with the publication
of a new far reaching review into family law.
Sarah Martin joins Higgs as an associate. She specialises in
divorce, civil partnership dissolution and cohabitation disputes as
well as advising on issues relating to children and relationship
breakdown.
Speaking of her appointment, Sarah said: "There has never been a
more important time in family law than now. The long anticipated
Family Justice Review panel final report has been published this
week and it's clear that people in the region need to ensure they
get the very best legal advice in the most cost-efficient way."
Sarah is a member of Resolution and qualified as a solicitor in
1999. She said that the Family Justice Review will bring the
biggest changes to family law in a generation: "It's been well
documented in the press this week about the legal rights of
children after a break-up, with fathers not automatically being
given shared or equal time with the children, should a relationship
end. Similarly, it is not proposed that grandparents have an
automatic right to have contact either.
"An increase in the number of cases being dealt with by the
family justice system means it is being put under significant
strain. In my experience, parents often find the system
complicated, expensive and emotionally exhausting. It's therefore
important that clear, concise advice is given."
The Family Justice Review panel was commissioned by the Ministry
of Justice, the Department for Education and the Welsh Government
to undertake a comprehensive review of the family justice system in
England and Wales.