Nine out of 10 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, fewer than half of family lawyers are trained as a specialist collaborative lawyers, the survey found.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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