Services

How we can help you

McKenzie Friend

For each court hearing it can be helpful if you provide a succinct professional Position Statement which will get your view and requests before the judge. We can provide guidance as to whether a position statement is necessary for an upcoming hearing. If so our experienced and knowledgeable McKenzie Friends will assist you in drafting a relevant Position Statement that will get your position over to the court in an effective way. They will also sit next to you in court or attend remote telephone/video hearings and can provide advice on any aspect of the conduct of your case, including: (i) Points of law (ii) Issues that you (litigant in person (LIP)) may wish to raise in court. (iii) Questions that you may wish to ask witnesses.

Free initial phone consultation

When you Contact Us if we are not able to speak to you immediately, we will call you back afterwards and provide a free initial phone consultation on the general aspects of your case. No cost and no obligation.

Telephone and email support

With our fixed prices we include reasonable telephone and email support. Or we can provide any extra support at a low cost.

Assistance in court

Even if you are a confident speaker in other situations and are well informed regarding the court process, going alone is not generally recommended. A supposedly simple hearing can throw up technical points and important decisions you have to decide on fairly quickly with little or no support available. Our McKenzie Friends who accompany you into court or can attend a remote telephone/video hearing and will ensure you are making decisions and putting forward your case to the court in a manner which is far more likely to get you the results you want. We will help you to stop making the mistakes that many parents do when they enter the rather bewildering system.

Court documents

The documents that you may wish to put before the court include statements, skeleton arguments, opening and closing submissions are tremendously important. To ensure they will be well received by the judge and anyone else reading them we strongly recommend you have the assistance of our McKenzie Friends. Too often parents will damage their case somewhat or even sabotage it completely by filing and serving documents which are counter-productive in content and poorly drafted. We help you get your view over to the court in an appropriate and an effective way.

Jeff Botterill was my McKenzie friend for a Leave to Remove from the Jurisdiction hearing which I was opposing. I was very impressed at the quality of service Jeff provided. He helped prepare a Position Statement to present to my ex-wife's solicitor for negotiation in advance of the final hearing. He was very well prepared for the 2 court appearances (a further directions and a final hearing) and provided case history which won me my request for a Shared Residence Order, which on the advice of her legal team, had been turned down by my ex-wife when presented in the position statement. I think her legal team was rather surprised by the knowledge and case notes that Jeff had provided me in court.

His guidance and support throughout the court hearings was excellent. He put me at ease and gave me the confidence to represent myself. His knowledge of the law and the case history surrounding leave to remove exceeded any that I had heard from the two solicitors that I had used. He is also passionate about the need for both parents in the lives of their children. I would highly recommend Jeff to anyone else looking for a McKenzie friend.
– Mr W. (London)
Dear Jeff, Thank you very much for the notes and assisting me today. I'm very grateful to you for your support and advice. I am so glad that you were with me. You helped me get the result I hoped for.
– Mrs M. (Hampshire)
I cannot thank you enough for all the help, support and advice Colin Brealey, and his contacts, have given during the fight to retain the residency of my children.
I was put in contact with Colin by Families need Fathers as a McKenzie friend, quite late in my case, but he soon helped create a very professional and powerful statement. He was very honest from the start and made it quite clear men don't win these cases very often.
Well we won, and we will all never be able to thank him enough for all he did. He has become quite a popular character round here, and some one who will always be a friend.
From one very happy Dad.
– Mr B. (Staffordshire)