For most people, the separation from their partner or marriage is one of the most difficult moments in their lives, due to the personal and financial consequences it entails.

At Carmen Varela, Abogados de Familia, we are committed to providing preventive advice from the outset of a family crisis, allowing our clients to face it with greater guarantees and better protection of their interests and those of their children.

We help our clients to plan their divorce, since the choice of the right moment is crucial to determine the personal (custody, communication and living arrangements) and economic consequences of the family crisis (such as the allocation of the use of the family residence, alimony or financial benefits for one of the spouses)

Although the divorce process can be consensual or contentious, at our firm we encourage negotiation before going to court, as it has been evidenced that the rates of non-compliance with agreements reached by the parties are much lower than those of court decisions and that family relationships are better preserved. However, when negotiation is not possible or does not protect the client’s legitimate interests, it is necessary to resort to litigation.

There are people who become couples with a stable union after registering their union in the appropriate registry. However, Catalan law also considers as stable couples those who, without being registered, have lived together for more than two years or, if they have lived together for less time, have children together. When these couples break up, as in the case of separation, divorce and annulment, the personal and economic consequences of the break-up must be regulated, since in the vast majority of cases, in addition to having children, the couples have joint property and economic relations, and one of the partners may be entitled to economic benefits after the break-up. All this can be regulated through a consensual or contentious process known as the regulation of parent-child relations.

Prospective spouses or those already married may conclude pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreements and/or agreements in anticipation of separation. These instruments make it possible to regulate the economic and personal consequences of separation, divorce or annulment before a hypothetical separation and are highly recommended.

Once a court decision has been taken or a public deed has been drawn up before a notary, the parties must comply with its contents. However, if one of the parties fails to do so and this causes harm to the client or his or her children, we advise them to go to court to have the obligation in question enforced.

If, after a divorce or guardianship decree has been issued by the court, there is a significant change in the family circumstances, the measures previously taken can be modified by means of a procedure for the modification of final measures.

The purpose of the ecclesiastical annulment, which is governed by the norms of canon law, is to declare the marriage null and void because of the existence of essential defects at the time of its celebration.

At the same time as or after the ecclesiastical declaration of nullity, the parties must settle the personal and economic consequences of the separation before the civil courts.

The purpose of filiation proceedings is to establish the true paternity and maternity of a person, which in these cases will be different from that recorded in the civil registry. At the end of these proceedings, damages may also be claimed for the harm caused by the deliberate concealment of the absence of a biological link between the child and the person who thought he was the father. Even if the paternity proceedings results in a denial of paternity, it is still possible to establish a system of communication and stays between the person who thought he was the father and the child, as a relative.

Irrespective of custody, parents are, with few exceptions, the holders of parental authority. This means that both must agree on all relevant aspects of the children’s lives and, if they do not, it is necessary to go to court to resolve the dispute.

Our team intervenes before the public administration in administrative cases of risk or abandonment of minors. We also advise minors independently of their parents and, if necessary, guarantee access to the courts and the defence of their interests.