Derbyshire Business Owners Count Cost of Divorce

Added: (Fri Jul 29 2005)

Pressbox (Press Release) - BUSINESS owners in Derbyshire have been warned by one of the region’s leading lawyers that marital difficulties could have a more devastating affect on their companies than they think.

John King, who runs the Derbyshire base of leading Midlands law firm Woolley & Co said difficulties at home could jeopardise almost everything hard working owner managers and entrepreneurs have built up over the years.

Mr King said: “Owner managers and entrepreneurs spend years building up their businesses to the point where they have a sizeable annual turnovers. They also pay into pension funds to plan ahead for retirement.

“But if things do start to go wrong at home all of their hard work could be in jeopardy and not just because of the emotional strain involved.

“The first time some business owners realise the full implications is when their spouse’s solicitors arrange for a business valuer to call in order to put a price on the business as a ‘going concern’ and staggered owner managers often say ‘they can’t do that can they’? but unfortunately they are wrong.”

Any business will be regarded by the divorce court as a matrimonial asset, to be thrown onto the scales along with the house, savings and investments and their pension fund.

Mr King added: “What many people don’t realise is that amongst other things they could lose up to 50 per cent of their pension fund, which could completely disrupt plans for retirement so clearly the implications are huge for anyone with a sizable fund.”

Woolley & Co, which has bases in Birmingham, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire as well as Derbyshire and Shropshire, breaks the mould of how traditional law firms operate by providing virtual legal services for clients via the internet. Woolley & Co can also arrange a local face-to-face meeting with clients to offer an even more flexible service.

It has already established a solid reputation since it was set up in 1996 and has launched www.divorce-lawfirm.co.uk with experts who understand business and divorce law.

Mr King said: “Our approach at Woolley & Co is aimed at offering clients the best advice in the most flexible way and using email to a large extent to communicate helps save days on each case.”

Woolley & Co offers advice on all aspects of divorce and family law. For further information visit www.divorce-lawfirm.co.uk

It also offers advice on all aspects of business law including setting up in business, commercial contracts, data protection, debts and disputes, employing people, IT and software agreements and all aspects of trading on and off line. For further information visit www.business-lawfirm.co.uk.