International Family Law

With international families, the legal relationships between the participants are not (only) based on German law, but (including or exclusively) on the law of another country which stipulates conditions which are either more stringent or lenient (for the divorce, or the parentage action for example), or other legal consequences (with the apportionment of assets and post marital maintenance).

It is the task of the solicitor to ascertain which legal system is applicable for them and to present the family judge with the basic circumstances. This is often omitted, however, which naturally results in the action being taken in German law, although an alternative legal system would also have been applicable whose provisions may have been more beneficial to the client.

In the event of divorces, the pension rights adjustment is normally carried out according to German law on an official basis and does not require an application from either of the spouses. With bi-national marriages, the completion of the pension rights adjustment can often be affected by considerable delays due to the time consuming acquisition of official documentation from foreign countries, which participants often find arduous and stressful, especially if the marriage was short. If the divorce is based on another law, it may be the case that the pension rights adjustment cannot, however, be completed without the appropriate application, which can be overlooked by the family courts if the solicitors do not raise the matter directly and present the circumstances according to which the applicability of the other legal system results.

There are a wide range of different possibilities in the area of international family law. I will be pleased to assist you in this area.