World Heart Day will be celebrated globally on 29 September 2025 to promote awareness around affordable care, early screening, and healthier lifestyle choices to avoid premature cardiovascular-related deaths.
This is a topic close to my heart (pun-intended) and therefore it felt fitting for me to share my top four heart-related family lawyer tips…
1. Don’t let heartbreak drive your legal instructions
“They left me, why should I be fair?”, “no, out of principle I will not agree for them to take the [add insignificant item here]”. These are comments we often receive from someone coming to see a family lawyer after a recent relationship break-down.
Whilst it is completely understandable to feel hurt and upset, it is often unhelpful to base your legal instructions on those emotions, as they rarely promote positive negotiations or a long-term resolution. Instead, often it leads to an increase in friction and hostility between parties which discourages finding a mutual resolution to the dispute. From there, legal costs can snowball, often leading to less and sometimes insufficient funds left to rehouse and rebuild your life with.
We therefore always recommend clients ensure their instructions are driven by a motivation to put forward a reasonable and forward-thinking position, so that a fair outcome can be achieved as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
It can often help to seek separate support from a friend, relative or even a GP to process your emotions and access resources to navigate the relationship breakdown, alongside seeking legal advice. This can help you stay focused on the legal advice during our appointments, so we can guide you through making key decisions and sensible negotiations that drive a resolution being attainable.
2. Make your child arrangement plan with heart & put the child’s welfare first
A breakup with your child’s parent is never easy and there will undoubtedly be hardships and sacrifices that will need to be made to ensure your child’s needs are prioritised.
This may mean sharing special occasions like Christmas Day, birthdays and school holidays, too. Whilst these discussions can be difficult to navigate, if they are driven with your child’s wishes in mind (or heart to keep this blog on theme) this is always best.
For example, alternating Christmas Day and Boxing Day each year often allows children to experience special time with each side of their family… and let’s face it a lot of children will be made up with two-days’ worth of celebrations rather than one, same goes for birthdays!
A low-conflict co-parenting relationship can support a child’s mental and physical health, including heart health and therefore when parents can agree these decisions between them without the child being brought into the adult issues and feeling torn, this can greatly assist them to feel stability and included in both families.
For further information on child arrangements you can visit our website.
3. Don’t wait for heartbreak to discuss what happens if you separate
It is a common misconception that prenuptial and postnuptial agreements are only for the wealthy, but this is not at all the case, they are for anyone looking to protect their assets.
These agreements are set up to future-proof your financial wellbeing and security in those circumstances where the marriage does sadly comes to an end. The agreements are formal legal documents that can be prepared for a couple before or after they marry and they record what each one brought to the marriage and sets out what they would each receive if the relationship breaks down or the couple divorce. Whilst these are not strictly legally binding in English Law currently, when they are created with due care and legal consideration, these agreements are often upheld by the Family Court upon divorce proceedings being brought.
Even if you are not married, there are options for a Cohabitation Agreement to be prepared setting out by agreement, what the financial circumstances will be when they move in together and indeed, should they break-up.
Whilst we hope the time will never come when such an agreement is called to action, do not let being loved up prevent you from safeguarding the financial position you’ve worked hard to achieve, ‘hope for the best, prepare for the worst’ as the saying goes.
4. Heartache does not have to mean hostility
Lastly, and to summarise the above three points, where yourself and the other person are able to put aside any negative emotions resulting from the end of the relationship, this can often free up space making constructive decisions together for how the family finances or children’s contact arrangements should be resolved.
Family mediation is one way for you to remain in control of the discussions but with the help and support of a trained professional known as a mediator, to guide you through the resolution of disputes, covering all issues or with focus on particular aspects such as child arrangements. The process can help remove the animosity that can naturally arise during court proceedings and enables separating couples to make their own decisions based on what will work for them and their families.
Of course, mediation is not always possible and there are circumstances in which lawyer correspondence and court proceedings will be necessary to ensure that a reasonable outcome is achieved.
Whichever way you are wishing to resolve your family law dispute, Timms are here to support you and to explain all of the options available to you and your family so that you can find solutions that fit your family’s situation.
Next Steps…
If you have any questions on the above, or any Family Law matter, please call me on 01332 364436 or email k.copsey@timms-law.com
For more information on Child Arrangement Orders, visit our webpage here.
