Litigation is ruinous for ordinary people, financially and emotionally. It is not what most separating couples want, and it is not what we sell.
Family breakdown is frightening, and it rarely arrives at a convenient time. Our first job is to be the calm in the room: to take the pressure off you, steady the situation, and give you a clear, honest view of where you stand. Our second is to be formidable where it counts. A lawyer who keeps you calm but cannot deliver is no use to anyone; the point of the composure is that it lets us think clearly and act decisively when the moment calls for it.
Our approach is to work out on day one a logical, methodical, fact-based view of your position, and then work towards a resolution. We want you to spend as little time in court, and as little time with lawyers, as your situation allows.
That is not the same as being soft about it. Where the other side will not provide proper financial disclosure, we make them account for it, and we are entirely willing to go to court if that is what it takes. Being ready for that is precisely what makes a sensible settlement possible.
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Most Divorces Are Not About Trusts
A great deal of the writing about divorce in Jersey concerns hidden offshore structures and multi-million pound settlements. In reality that is a small proportion of the work, perhaps two per cent of the market.
For nearly everyone else the questions are ordinary and pressing. Where will everyone live. What happens to the mortgage. How are the children going to see both parents. What can we actually afford. Those questions deserve the same care as the large cases and they are, if anything, less forgiving of a lawyer who runs up costs.
If your matter does involve a trust, a business or assets held offshore, we can deal with that. It is genuinely specialist work and we have done it for thirty years. But we do not assume it, and we do not build a case around it where it does not apply.
How We Approach It
Establish the Facts First
Before anything else we establish what is actually there: the income, the property, the pensions, the borrowing and the outgoings. Most disagreements about money turn out, once set out properly, to be narrower than either party believed.
Identifying the real issues early is usually the single biggest saving available in a separation. It shortens the process, and it removes a great deal of the anxiety that comes from not knowing where you stand.
Build on What Is Agreed
Very often couples agree on more than they realise. Who initiates the proceedings, the immediate practical arrangements, and the arrangements for the children can frequently be settled between sensible people.
We build from those points outward. Every issue resolved by agreement is an issue that does not need to be argued at cost.
Negotiate, and Mediate Where It Helps
Most matters are resolved by agreement, whether directly, through solicitors, or at mediation. Mediation is not a soft option or a delaying tactic. It is frequently the most efficient route to a fair outcome, and it works considerably better when the financial position has already been properly established.
Use the Court Process as a Timetable, Not a Weapon
Where matters are drifting, or where one party will not engage, issuing proceedings imposes a timetable. That is usually why we recommend it, and it is a very different thing from litigating for its own sake.
Even then, the great majority of matters are resolved before a final hearing.
Disclosure Is Not Optional
Where a spouse will not disclose their finances properly, or where money is being moved, that changes the position and we will act on it. The Royal Court can order disclosure and, where there is a genuine risk of dissipation, can grant freezing relief.
We use those powers where the evidence justifies them. We do not use them to create leverage in a case that does not need it.
Costs
We will tell you at the outset what your matter is likely to involve and what it is likely to cost, and we will tell you when a course of action is not worth the money.
Firms that ramp a separation up and make it worse do their clients real harm. We would rather resolve your matter and keep the cost proportionate to what is actually at stake.
Why Clients Instruct Sinels
You work directly with a senior lawyer, not a call centre or a rotating team.
We have advised Jersey clients through separation for over thirty years, in straightforward matters and in the most complex ones. We are known for discretion, reliability and honest advice, and we will tell you plainly when we think you are being unrealistic.
Talk to Our Family Team
Or Call Us: +44 (0)1534 620500
Frequently Asked Questions About Divorce & Family Separation
Do we have to go to court?
Usually not. The great majority of matters are resolved by agreement.
Court is there for when agreement genuinely is not possible, when one party will not engage, or when the finances are not being disclosed. Even then most cases settle before a final hearing.
Will the grounds for the divorce affect the financial settlement?
Generally no. People often assume that an admission of adultery, for example, will influence the court’s decision or the financial outcome. Under normal circumstances the fact on which the divorce is based has no bearing on the financial result.
What if my spouse is hiding money?
Say so early. Where assets are being concealed or moved, the Royal Court can order disclosure, and where there is a real risk of dissipation it can grant freezing relief without notice to the other side.
Those are serious applications and they are not appropriate in every case. Where they are needed, we can make them.
Can a Jersey trust be taken into account on a divorce?
It can. The Royal Court can treat an interest in a discretionary trust as a financial resource where there is a history of distributions, and where a trust is a nuptial settlement the court has power to vary it.
Article 9 of the Trusts (Jersey) Law 1984, the firewall provision, means these questions generally have to be litigated in Jersey rather than abroad. This is specialist work, and it applies to a small minority of separations.
What will it cost?
That depends on what is in dispute and on how the other side behaves, and we will give you a realistic view at the start rather than an optimistic one.
What we can say is that our aim is to reduce the cost, not to extend it. Litigation is expensive and uncertain, and everybody knows it.
