Family Law Courses

What is a Family Law Course?

A Family Law course focuses on finding solutions to issues relating to often complex legal relationships held within the family. These can include marriage and parenthood among others. 

Family Law Topics

Studying a family law course will introduce the student to areas such as:

• Divorce, dissolution and financial separation
• Children, parentage, residence, contact and parental responsibility. This may also include adoption, surrogacy, child abduction and even abuse/neglect
• Children’s Rights (taking into consideration a child’s ability to make their own decisions)
• Domestic Abuse
• Domestic obligations towards families under International Treaties such as the ECHR
• Socio-legal Family Law: a more general look at what society defines family as and whether the law has adequately responded to modern societal views. Examples include the law of parentage in the context of a rise in same-sex couples
• Family law and the State. This includes the role of agencies and local authorities in childcare and protection
• How to Become a Family Lawyer
• To become a family lawyer, you must demonstrate certain personal characteristics and relevant work experience. You’ll also have to indicate your passion for the subject.

Who Should Study Family Law?

The Student of a family law course should expect to work with both adults and children. As a result of this the student must be prepared for client-facing work. Anyone who has a passion for helping people or who wants to work on handling relationships and interacting with clients would be ideally suited to a career in family law. 

What does a Family Lawyer do?

The role of the Family Lawyer is to help clients understand their position and resolve any issues relating to any particular familial arrangement. They are responsible for the drafting of things like pre-nuptial agreements before marriage, advising on the grounds of divorce or civil partnership dissolution and the draft separation agreements.

It is also the task of the family lawyer to negotiate arrangements such as contact, residence and access when it comes to the care and legal protection of children. 

On a day-to-day basis, a family lawyer might have to:

• Attend meetings with clients
• Research similar previous cases to the ones they are working on
• Analyse points of law
• Draft legal documents, such as witness statements
• Investigate and evaluate evidence that might be beneficial for their clients
• Negotiate with opposition to reach a settlement agreement
• File applications in the family court
• Meet with barristers to discuss matters going to trial
• Attend hearings in court before a judge or jury

There are many different family law courses available across ireland. 

You can find a family law course near you on Courses.ie