Resolution Together is a way of working that allows qualified lawyers to provide joint, impartial legal advice to separating or divorcing clients.
This ‘one couple, one Solicitor’ ‘two client, one Solicitor’ approach comes after the implementation of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act, which allows couples, for the first time, to make joint applications to end a marriage together.
Contact Michaela Evans, our Resolution Together specialist at Taylor Emmet Solicitors
Or we can call you back at a time of your choice.
Our expertise with Resolution Together
Resolution Together is a comprehensive client service provided to a separating couple by our Resolution Together specialist, Michaela Evans, ideal for those who want to manage their separation or divorce together. This method can be effective for couples who are separating amicably.
Resolution Together differs from the traditional way of dealing with a divorce, where each party has their own lawyer. With this approach, both clients can receive legal advice from Michaela on an equally beneficial basis.
Taylor Emmet is currently one of only a small number of firms in Sheffield that currently offers the Resolution Together service.
Michaela, one of the first solicitors in the country trained in the Resolution Together method introduced the service amid increased demand from separating couples keen to resolve matters together in a cooperative, cost-effective way, and it sits alongside the wide range of other services the firm offers, including collaborative law and traditional representation.
Resolution has worked with the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) to ensure that Resolution Together operates within current regulations and provides as much support and reassurance for members as possible.
How our Resolution Together Solicitor can help you
First contact
If you are considering a single solicitor divorce, the first step is to contact Michaela Evans, our Resolution Together specialist.
Michaela will discuss your situation and confirm whether the Resolution Together service is right for you. If it isn’t, we offer a range of alternative divorce and separation options, such as Collaborative Law. Everyone is different, and not every situation is suited, but you will be advised as to next steps, the information you need to consider and any other options available to you.
Initial joint meetings
Michaela will need to check that both you and your ex-partner are committed to a conflict-free process and that neither of you is being pressured by the other. Divorce cases involving domestic abuse are not suitable for Resolution Together.
Michaela will at the first meeting have individual discussions with you both as detailed below. If, following those meetings, you are both still keen to work together and Michaela is satisfied that the process is suitable for you, she will walk you through the divorce process, if appropriate, from start to finish, agreeing on a timeline that works for you both.
Michaela will also outline the procedure for collating required financial information/disclosure and agree on the next steps with you.
Individuals attending alone for a first contact meeting
You may come to your first meeting alone, expressing your intention that you can work jointly with your ex-partner to resolve matters. However, it will be important to understand why you have come on your own and whether that provides any indication in the first place that your former partner may be reluctant to work jointly and/or any indication that it might be inappropriate (or unsafe) for either of you to do so.
The individual meeting/s
During the first joint meeting, Michaela will have individual meetings with each of you. In the individual meeting, it will be important to take the time to explore fully with you both:
- The individual circumstances
- The appropriateness of the situation to working jointly
- Whether it would be safe for you to do so
- Your aim/s and what you hope to achieve
- If there are any conflicts between you and your former partner
- What you understand of the general legal principles surrounding your outcome
- What other supporting services/professional advice or support you already have or that might be of assistance to you
This individual meeting for single solicitor divorces is critical to decision-making about the appropriateness of agreeing to work jointly and will be carefully and sensitively managed. It will include a thorough assessment of aspects of safety, (including any safeguarding risk/s), any pressures on or duress of that individual to work with your former partner, whether there are or have been any risks or concerns about mental or emotional health or any other marker that would indicate that working jointly might be inappropriate.
Subsequent joint discussions and couple negotiations
Prior to the second joint meeting, you will have both let Michaela have your financial documentation, which she will have considered in detail. She will produce a schedule of assets and a bundle of supporting documents to ensure that you have both received all relevant information and documentation to enable you to negotiate a settlement.
At the meeting Michaela will also ask you both to sign formal Agreement committing you to the Resolution Together process. Michaela will also sign the Agreement. Michaela will then work with you both to ensure that you both understand the financial information that has been provided.
She will provide you both with advice as to the range of settlement outcomes that would be suitable in your particular circumstances. She will ensure that you both have a chance to express your views and concerns, ask any questions and have them answered. You will both have an opportunity to be heard.
It may be possible to reach an overall agreement at this meeting but in some cases subsequent cases are necessary particularly if expert evidence and input is required, for example from property valuers, Pension On Divorce Experts, independent financial advisors, etc.
If expert input is required, Michaela will work with you both to identify the appropriate expert and to instruct them on a joint impartial basis. On occasion it sometimes helps to have the experts attend a meeting with you.
Reaching an outcome
Once an agreement has been reached in principle, a draft standard order may be drawn that reflects your agreement together. Any decisions and agreements reached should have been worked through and tested by you and facilitated by us. We have the same responsibilities to point out any aspect that might fall outside what a court would order prior to any final agreement being reached.
Michaela will advise you on how to apply to the court for the draft order and will ensure that:
- She is satisfied that it is by consent
- There is or has been no dispute that has arisen subsequently to your final decision making
