Pembrokshire solicitor helps Family law firm expand into Wales

Gemma Scourfield, a Pembrokeshire-based family lawyer, has introduced a new law to generate less confrontational divorces, effective by April 2022. She has been practising law within the surrounding areas for 14 years. Gemma reports how the industry is now clasping alternative ways of working that have developed during the past 18 months, such as less paperwork, additional virtual hearings and working remotely across the sector. A rise in divorce cases has added extra pressure to the fully-stretched family court system, which has recently seen Welsh cases processed in alternative locations after the Covid lockdown forced the primary regional family law centre to shut its doors. Gemma said: “I think a lot of people re-evaluated what they want out of life, had more time to research the divorce process and found being confined to their homes with their spouses during lockdown simply gave them the impetus to do something about it. Life is too short to be in an unhappy situation. “I have certainly found that the number of enquiries on divorce have gone up significantly during the pandemic. Unfortunately, this coincided with a regional family law centre closing for Wales with all our cases now going to Bury St Edmunds for administration. “A key role for me now more than ever is to manage expectations for those going through separation, not just in terms of a settlement but also in terms of the timescale.” Gemma said the initiation of no-fault divorce, starting next April, will assist multiple families to navigate legal separation involving less confrontation than the current system, benefitting all involved. She added: “We are seeing more family lawyers fitting services around clients rather than being tied to high street offices and courts have done away with paper bundles, embracing electronic solutions and online submissions which has been very slow coming to this sector. “This is a business model which Woolley & Co pioneered in the 1990s but has taken a long time to catch on, but things are now moving in the right direction. “Putting the family, the children, first is the number one priority and it is good to see that family law practice is now firmly heading in the right direction.” Contact Gemma online. More information about Woolley & Co is available on the firm’s website.