Katie Alexiou

No two people experience divorce in the same way. If you are wondering whether my service is appropriate for you, please read the case studies below which set out just a few of the circumstances in which I’ve been able to help my clients.

D is 68. She came to me when her husband of 35 years left her, having rekindled a relationship with a former girlfriend. We worked together to rebuild her confidence and to stop focusing on what had happened and why. I helped D move forward in practical terms by drafting her divorce petition with her and filing it at court. We looked at her financial situation and I advised her what the likely outcome would be if she were to go to court which gave her the confidence to open financial discussions with her husband.

H had been through two divorces and was feeling disillusioned with the legal system when she came to me for some advice about enforcing her court order. Her former husband had been difficult about making annual payments towards school fees for their daughter and she feared this would continue right through her education. We worked together to draft letters to him and his solicitor with the effect that he agreed to pay a capitalised lump sum towards school fees, meaning all financial communication between the parties could cease and they could focus on working together constructively as co-parents.

N had divorced his wife several years previously but their relationship was extremely acrimonious and she was preventing him from seeing the children. I looked at their correspondence to date to gauge the best way of appealing to her and drafted an email that focused on the children and on being decent and reasonable. As a result their relationship improved enormously and he now sees his children on a regular basis.

J and her husband had divorced shortly after their son was born but three years later she and her husband were still unable to communicate constructively and their son’s wellbeing was seriously compromised. I helped her write applications, schedules and statements for court, put together bundles of documents for her hearing and accompanied her to a meeting with her barrister where I was able to help her use the time efficiently and understand the advice she was given. I also advised her about how to protect her son from being emotionally harmed.

L’s former wife was preventing him from seeing their four children, having made some serious allegations about him which led to the involvement of social services and the police. I advised him about his legal options, about how to conduct himself while this was happening and helped him communicate with his former wife in a way that led to an improvement in relations and renewed contact with the children. I also advised him on a cohabitation agreement with his new partner.

A was involved with a married man and wanted some advice about how his divorce was likely to play out and how she could protect her assets from being taken into account.

R and S came to me when they were unable to reach a financial agreement. They had already spent a huge amount of money on legal fees but both felt they had reached their bottom line and would not compromise further. We spent several hours sitting at my kitchen table talking everything through in a calm and reasonable way and were able to meet in the middle.

S came to me when she found out her husband was having an affair and wanted a divorce. We talked about her rights and her options and how best to handle the situation so that her daughter wouldn’t be too adversely affected. Her husband was very difficult and I referred S to an appropriate London solicitor who took her case forward with occasional supplementary advice from me. I talked her through what to expect from her solicitor and prepared her for the first meeting. I wrote a detailed note of her circumstances that she was able to send the solicitor in advance so that she could avoid the expenditure and emotional distress of going through it all again during the meeting.

A was referred to me by a firm of solicitors in Kingston who were dealing with her case. She was struggling to fill in her Form E, both psychologically and practically, and needed someone to hold her hand through the process. I was able to do this for her, saving a lot of money on legal fees and freeing up her solicitors to work on other aspects of her case.

S needed some advice when his former partner of a few months became pregnant and wished to move to Australia before the baby was born. We discussed his rights and obligations, assessed what he would be obliged to pay in child maintenance and came up with a plan to implement this without involving the court.

D had been married for a short time and had no children but was very wealthy. His wife had instructed a very expensive matrimonial solicitor and was seeking a large sum of money as settlement. I helped D to understand what his former wife’s realistic entitlement was and we worked together to draft some emails to his former wife and her solicitor and made statements for court.

J and his wife had decided to divorce. They were amicable and had fairly limited assets so didn’t want to spend money unnecessarily on legal fees. I drafted his divorce petition for him and drew up his consent order. He then only needed one meeting with a solicitor who formalised his consent order and had it sealed at court. I was able to prepare J for the meeting and advised him how he could keep legal fees to a minimum.

C had accepted that she needed a divorce but didn’t know how to go about the process. Together we drafted her divorce petition and discussed her finances. We needed to research how to serve the divorce papers on her husband as he was living in Dubai at the time and we sought permission from the court to serve all documents on him via email.