Kayanne Horgan is a solicitor with over 20 years’ experience working in Galway city. Over the years Kayanne has brought her experience to help many couples, wives and husbands, partners and cohabitants who wish to separate or divorce. She is a family law solicitor who listens to the concerns raised by clients when they separate. Quite often it is by going through the concerns and issues raised and explaining the way the law treats separating couples that an amicable solution can be found.
Most clients do not want to go to Court to resolve their differences and this is an approach that we endorse. In fact most divorce cases or civil partnership dissolution cases are settled before the Court date which makes the final step of going to Court and getting the final Court Order much less stressful. In fact if agreement is reached and a consent order signed by both parties then only one party needs to go to Court for the final step in getting the Court Order. If agreement cannot be reached on the issues then it is a contested case and will go before a Judge to decide the issues.
Each party must exchange a list of Assets and Liabilities in affidavit form in order for a fair division of assets and liabilities to be reached. If one party does not cooperate then this can lengthen the process and end up making it a costly process. If both parties cooperate and are PAYE employed then legal costs can be low. If one or other of the parties is self-employed then Form 11 and accounts will be required to be exchanged. Some cases can be more complex if pensions, investments and shareholdings in companies form part of the assets and will need to be valued.
Kayanne has experience in corporate law and therefore is very experienced in analysing company structures and shareholdings which may form part of the martial assets in a case. We also work with a team of barristers, forensic accountants and pension experts when a case with a complex pot of assets is involved. Most cases involve a family home and a mortgage with both parties being employed which then just requires an auctioneer to value the family home and the auctioneer can be engaged on behalf of both parties to keep the costs down.
Similarly, with custody and access to children if agreement cannot be reached amicably then the case will go before a Judge to decide custody and access.
The Court Service has a link that tells you what to expect when in Court:
https://courts.ie/what-expect-courtroom
