Civil law

Separation, divorce, maintenance, parental authority and custody.

Division of estates, statutory entitlements, actions in abatement, execution of wills. Settling an estate calls for tact as much as rigour.

Ownership, co-ownership, easements and neighbour relations: what is entered in the land register, and what is disputed there.

Deputyships, advance care directives, living wills, and proceedings before the adult protection authority (APEA).

Civil procedure — jurisdiction, evidence, time limits and avenues of appeal — often determines the outcome as much as substantive law.

Name, domicile, legal capacity, infringements of personality rights, restraining measures: matters touching on identity and privacy, and the means of enforcing them.

Video surveillance, records, personal data: what the law allows to be collected and stored, and the data subject’s rights of access, rectification and objection.