Janet Raeburn

Janet heads up Rix & Kay’s Family Law Team and is a specialist family and divorce lawyer in Sussex with significant experience in providing advice on all legal aspects of divorce and separation to clients across the South East. As a key member of the firm’s dedicated Family law team based in Uckfield, she has a particular expertise in managing and negotiating complex financial settlements and resolving disputes relating to all aspects of a child’s life and disputes involving significant property assets.

Janet’s Clients

Janet supports clients from all backgrounds who want a supportive and highly responsive family and divorce lawyer by their side. In particular, Janet works with spouses, civil partners and cohabitees who need advice on a wide range of relationship issues including child and complex financial matters. She also supports individuals who have separated from marriage and need to be guided through a divorce, whether that be under amicable or more difficult circumstances.

Experience and approach

Janet focusses on providing clear constructive advice, with a view to resolving matters in a direct and effective manner, whilst remaining non-confrontational. Maintaining open dialogue and negotiations in this way is often key to resolving disputes without the need to enter into costly and stressful Court proceedings and Janet has developed an outstanding track record in this regard.

However, there are circumstances where matters can not be resolved without involving the Court and if this becomes the only feasible course of action, Janet has many years experience in successfully representing clients throughout the Court process, undertaking much of her own advocacy.

Specific areas of expertise include complex financial circumstances arrangements, including elements such as inherited assets, trust of land matters, companies and assets accrued post-separation.

Areas of expertise

• Divorce, civil partnership dissolution and separation
• Financial matters arising from a relationship breakdown
• Drafting and advising on financial documents for those who are to marry or cohabit including Pre and Post Nuptial Agreements, Cohabitation Agreements, and Declarations of Trust establishing interests in property
• Drafting and advising on financial documents for those who have separated or divorced, including Financial Orders and Separation Agreements
• Property issues arising from cohabitation, including Trust of Land matters
• Children Act matters, including disputes surrounding where a child should live, go to school, or if they can be taken abroad.

Janet’s work

Welfare and safeguarding concerns surrounding children
Janet represented a parent throughout the Court process where there were serious welfare and safeguarding concerns surrounding the relationship of one parent to the children, with significant issues to be resolved at a Fact Finding Hearing prior to a contested final hearing. Janet represented the client through the duration of the hearing to a successful conclusion.

Complex divorce and financial proceedings
Janet represented a client throughout complex divorce and financial proceedings, where the matrimonial assets had been lost and existing assets had been accrued during the lengthy period since separation. Janet undertook complex negotiations on behalf of her client, paving the way for an amicable resolution in her clients favour.

What Janet’s clients say

“Rix & Kay take a thoughtful and combined approach to matters, including financial and children disputes concerning divorce and relationship breakdown. The knowledgeable, clear-sighted Janet Raeburn heads the team with her broad knowledge of complex financial agreements.

”Janet Raeburn is knowledgeable, clear-sighted and utterly unflappable. Her cases are well-prepared and she has terrific judgment; you won’t find her running bad points or missing a trick. I have seen how Janet’s calm manner puts clients at ease and I think she manages to take a lot of the stress out of family litigation.”

“The family practitioners at Rix & Kay really do work as a team. Everyone I have dealt with has been friendly and professional and my impression is that they really care about giving clients the best possible service”.

”The team is pragmatic and extremely reliable. They take a thoughtful and combined approach for finances / TLATA and children matters”.

Industry peers praise Rix & Kay in the latest edition of Legal 500