Nine out of ten family lawyers support the move to leave divorce courts out of divorce, according to a newly published survey.

 

The research, which canvassed the views of 100 matrimonial lawyers, found that nearly all solicitors support the introduction of collaborative law – where couples work together with their lawyers to resolve their issues without the involvement of the court.

 

Despite this, less than half of family lawyers are trained as a specialist collaborative lawyers, the survey found.

 

Meanwhile, wealthy couples are increasingly signing pre-nips, with three in four lawyers reporting an increase in pre-nups.

 

Civil partnership agreements  are also on the up, with 81 per cent of lawyers reporting the level of pre-civil partnership agreements increasing or at least staying the same, compared with 33 per cent in 2006.

 

Lawyers say they have spent, on average, over half their time advising on pre-nup agreements and co-habitation agreements whilst just over a quarter of their time was spent advising on separation agreements.

 

The remaining time was spent between post-nuptial agreements (7 per cent), pre-civil partnership agreements (4 per cent) and other types of agreement (8 per cent).  

 

The research was carried out by Grant Thornton who interviewed 100 family lawyers.