Family Law covers disputes arising from marriage, kinship, and parental rights and obligations — from the status of marital property to the rights of relatives. Most often, clients come to us over divorce, division of jointly owned property, child support (recovery or variation), and determining a child's place of residence (child custody). For a family lawyer in Ukraine working with international clients, the first step is always the same: a realistic assessment of the likely outcome before any claim is filed.
This practice area also covers adoption, guardianship and custody, and the extra-judicial settlement of rights and obligations between spouses, parents, and relatives — often the faster and less adversarial route.
Whatever the case, the approach is the same: we build a defense strategy, represent your interests in court and in direct dealings with the other side and their lawyer, prepare and file the necessary documents, send legal inquiries, and advise you at every step. A divorce lawyer in Ukraine stays with the case from the first negotiation through enforcement of the final judgment. As an English-speaking lawyer team working with clients abroad, we handle 99% of matters entirely remotely — under an attorney-client agreement or a power of attorney — with no need to travel to Ukraine.
Family disputes are rarely just legal. The people going through them are often under real emotional strain, and we take that as seriously as the legal work itself. We handle these matters with discretion, without pressure or rushed decisions, and — in child custody disputes especially — always with the child's interests placed first. Where it would help, we bring in a psychologist or mediator alongside the legal team.
Divorce
Visitation rights and parenting arrangements
Child residency (Physical custody)
Hague Convention Child Return
Termination of parental rights
Spouse's Common Property Division
Paternity establishment, disestablishment and challenge
Adoption
Marriage Contracts (Prenuptial & Postnuptial agreements)
No. Neither the consent nor any action of the other spouse is required.
No, this is optional. You can delegate participation in the hearings to your lawyer or file a statement asking the court to hear the case in your absence.
The divorce itself does not change the legal regime of marital property or the spouses' rights regarding their children. In Ukraine, each of these matters is decided by the court in a separate lawsuit.
The sole and sufficient ground for a court divorce is a statement by one of the spouses that they do not wish to continue the marriage.
The reasons stated in the divorce claim, such as different views on life or a lack of mutual respect and understanding, are usually sufficient.
The timeline depends on the region and on the particular court and judge. In general terms:
The minimum time for a court divorce is therefore 2 months. Unfortunately, there is no maximum.
Yes. The Family Code of Ukraine used to prohibit a husband from filing for divorce during his wife's pregnancy and within one year after the child's birth, but this restriction was removed by Law of Ukraine No. 4073-IX of 20 November 2024.
A divorce claim can now be filed by either spouse, regardless of pregnancy or the child's age (Article 110 of the Family Code of Ukraine).
Yes. The agreement with the lawyer is signed in writing and scanned, and the original is sent by post to the law firm's address.
We draft the claim and file it with the court without waiting for the original agreement to arrive, so living outside Ukraine causes no restrictions or delays.
Yes. The agreement must be notarised, and it then has the same legal force as a court decision.
The parent who lives separately from the child.
It issues a decision on how that parent takes part in the child's upbringing and communicates with the child, which in practice means setting a visitation schedule.
Parents have equal rights. However, the applying parent does not always want an equal share in the child's upbringing and may, for example, ask for visits on weekends from 9 am to 8 pm without overnight stays.
In that case, the court or the guardianship authority sets the schedule based on the applicant's request, taking into account the interests of the child and of the other parent.
By a court, by the guardianship authority, or by agreement between the parents.
That parent gets the right to claim child support, the ability to travel abroad with the child for medical treatment or holidays, the ability to change and register the child's place of residence without the other parent's consent, and the right to seek the child's return through the courts if the other parent abducts the child.
That parent keeps the right to communicate with the child and to take part in important events in the child's life, and remains obliged to support the child financially, including by paying child support.
In Western countries, custody of a child after a marital breakdown is usually governed by legislation that protects the child's rights and interests during the parents' divorce. It may include the following elements:
These mechanisms protect the child's well-being and rights when the parents divorce and rest on fairness, equality and the child's best interests. The Ukrainian institution of determining a child's place of residence is therefore similar to Western custody, but not identical.
Only by agreement between the parents. However, recent Supreme Court practice appears to allow a 50/50 residence arrangement, even though the law does not provide for it.
Ukrainian law does not treat it as a crime and provides no punishment for it. The police have no authority to intervene, because the child is considered to be in the care of a parent who has the same right to raise the child as the other parent.
If the court has determined the child's place of residence with one parent and the other parent has unlawfully changed it, the court may, on application, order the child's return to the parent with whom the court determined the child's residence.
The 1980 Hague Convention aims to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained in any Contracting State, and to ensure that rights of custody and access under the law of one Contracting State are respected in the other Contracting States.
A removal or retention is wrongful if it breaches rights of custody held by a person, institution or other body under the law of the State where the child habitually resided immediately before the removal or retention, and if those rights were actually exercised at that time or would have been exercised but for the removal or retention.
The Convention applies to any child who habitually resided in a Contracting State immediately before the breach of custody or access rights.
The return procedure has three stages:
The 1996 Convention itself states that it does not affect the application of the 1980 Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction between States that are parties to both. Its provisions can nevertheless be applied to return a wrongfully removed or retained child or to organise rights of access.
The two conventions differ in purpose: the 1980 Convention aims to return the child to the country of habitual residence, while the 1996 Convention deals with the recognition and enforcement of decisions on parental responsibility. At the same time, Article 7 of the 1996 Convention in effect duplicates Articles 1–3 of the 1980 Convention.
A parent can be deprived of parental rights if they:
No. Non-payment of child support cannot be the sole ground for deprivation of parental rights.
No. It is not easy and is almost impossible. It can be done only where the father shows no care or interest in the child, commits violence against the child, or poses a danger to the child.
Yes, except where the child has been adopted and the adoption has not been revoked or declared invalid by a court.
To restore parental rights, the parent must provide the court with evidence of their rehabilitation and sincere wish to fulfil parental duties, completed treatment for alcohol or drug addiction, and other evidence refuting the circumstances for which they were deprived of parental rights, as well as the guardianship authority's opinion on whether restoring the claimant's parental rights is possible.
A parent deprived of parental rights loses:
In court or by agreement. Division by agreement also includes mediation, where an independent mediator helps the spouses resolve the dispute.
An agreement on the division of marital property is notarised and subject to state registration. Once it is concluded, the property is divided at once and the notary registers it to each spouse according to the terms of the agreement.
As a general rule, all property acquired from the date of the marriage until its dissolution is marital property and is divided on divorce.
Property acquired by a spouse before the marriage, and property received by a spouse during the marriage by inheritance or as a gift, is not marital property.
Divisible property includes movables (cars, household items, luxury items), real estate (apartments, houses, land plots) and intellectual property rights such as trademarks.
As a general rule, property acquired during the marriage belongs to the wife and husband in joint ownership, in equal shares.
A court may increase the share of the wife or husband who lives with the children or with an incapacitated adult son or daughter, if the maintenance they receive is not enough to provide for the child's physical and spiritual development and medical treatment.
As a rule, the court awards the car in kind, that is, entirely, to one spouse and orders monetary compensation to the other. The car usually goes to the spouse who uses it more.
In exceptional cases, the court may recognise equal shares of ownership in the car, which does not actually resolve the division.
Yes.
Yes. Contesting paternity means the person refuses to recognise himself as the child's father.
A person recorded as the child's father may file a claim to remove the record of his paternity from the birth record and must provide the court with the relevant evidence.
The following cannot adopt:
There is no limit on the number of children one adoptive parent may adopt.
In addition to the requirements above and those of Article 212 of the Family Code of Ukraine, applicants must meet the following conditions:
Ukrainian citizens who wish to adopt a child apply for registration as adoptive parents to the child welfare service at their place of residence. The application is written in the presence of a child welfare service officer, who certifies it.
The application states the applicant's address (if there are several places of residence, each of them), passport details, phone number and email address. If one of the spouses cannot come to the child welfare service in person to write the application, a notarised application from that spouse may be submitted.
The application is accompanied by:
If only one of the spouses is adopting, the health certificate and the criminal record certificate are submitted for each spouse. Documents are valid for one year from the date of issue, unless the law provides otherwise.
How long the main stages take:
Orphans and children deprived of parental care who are available for adoption. Their profiles are published on the following websites:
A foreign citizen, as well as a Ukrainian citizen living abroad, can adopt only a child over 5 years old.
Yes. However, the adoption procedure for foreigners differs significantly from domestic adoption and is more complex and bureaucratic. Foreigners are subject to several restrictions, for example, they can adopt only children over 5 years old.
The procedure for foreigners and Ukrainian citizens living abroad to apply to the Ministry of Social Policy is set out in this Instruction.
Ukrainian citizens living abroad and foreigners who wish to adopt a child living in Ukraine submit the following documents to the Ministry of Social Policy:
The eligibility opinion must contain:
Usually yes, provided three conditions are met.
First, the spouses must have chosen a law they were entitled to choose: the personal law of either spouse, the law of the country where one of them habitually resides, or, for immovable property, the law of the country where that property is located.
Second, the form of the agreement must comply with either that law or the law of the place where it was signed.
Third, its terms must not conflict with Ukrainian public policy.
When a Ukrainian court applies foreign law, it establishes the content of that law itself and may request assistance from the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine or engage experts (Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine "On Private International Law"). In practice, this takes time, so the spouse who relies on a foreign agreement submits documents confirming what the foreign law says, normally an affidavit from a lawyer admitted in that jurisdiction.
If the content of the foreign law is not established within a reasonable time, the court applies Ukrainian law, that is, the Family Code of Ukraine and its presumption that everything acquired during the marriage is jointly owned.
A marriage contract governed by Ukrainian law must be certified by a notary, and it is one of the few agreements that cannot be signed by a representative under a power of attorney: each spouse signs it personally. If you are outside Ukraine, this can be done at a Ukrainian consulate.
We handle everything else remotely: drafting, negotiating the terms, checking how the agreement will work in the other jurisdiction, and preparing the final text for signature.
Ukrainian law limits marriage contracts to property matters: the ownership regime for assets acquired during the marriage, how those assets are used and divided, maintenance between spouses, and the spouses' property obligations as parents.
A marriage contract cannot govern personal, non-property relations. It cannot reduce a child's rights, leave one spouse in an extremely disadvantageous financial position, or transfer ownership of real estate or other property subject to state registration.
Clauses that are routine in some countries, such as inheritance arrangements, where the couple must live or penalties for infidelity, will not be enforced in Ukraine, even if the rest of the agreement remains valid.
Not necessarily. A single agreement can often be drafted to meet the requirements of every jurisdiction where it may one day be relied on, which avoids the cost of mirror documents and the risk of inconsistency between them.
Problems arise when the agreement is signed first and checked later: an agreement drafted for one legal system alone is where disputes start.
Either. Ukrainian law allows a marriage contract to be concluded by a couple who have filed a marriage application and by spouses who are already married, with no time limit, so a couple can sign one after ten years together.
The difference is when it takes effect. An agreement signed before the wedding takes effect on the day the marriage is registered, while one signed by spouses takes effect on the day the notary certifies it.
Signing later also has a practical advantage: by then the spouses know what their assets actually are.
Not unilaterally. Changing the terms or terminating the agreement normally requires both spouses and a notary.
If one spouse refuses, the other can go to court, but the court will not rewrite the agreement simply because it has become inconvenient. It looks for substantial reasons: the interests of a spouse, of the children or of an adult child unable to work, and, for termination, circumstances that make the agreement impossible to perform.
In practice, such a case is harder than most clients expect, so the terms need to be right at the drafting stage.
A spouse, or anyone else whose rights the agreement affects, can ask a court to declare it invalid in whole or in part.
The usual grounds are the statutory limits: an agreement cannot reduce a child's rights, cannot transfer ownership of real estate or other property subject to state registration, and cannot leave one spouse in an extremely disadvantageous financial position.
Most case law concerns the last ground, which is deliberately open-ended. The Supreme Court assesses each agreement on its own facts, and an uneven division does not by itself make the agreement invalid.
The general grounds also apply: a defect in the notarial form, fraud, duress, signing under the pressure of severe circumstances, or lack of legal capacity.
Every client of Disputes Law Firm, without exception, signs a legal-services agreement in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On the Bar and Practice of Law."
An appendix to the agreement, called the "Assignment," clearly sets out the specific service the client will receive, the result the client expects, the point at which the client's instruction is considered duly performed, and the fee for the work along with the terms of payment.
One copy of the agreement stays with the law firm, and one is given to the client.
We do guarantee that every member of Disputes Law Firm — lawyers and management alike — will take diligent, high-quality, and timely action aimed at achieving the result the client expects.
We do guarantee that, under any circumstances, we will not take, or fail to take, any action that would harm the client's legally protected rights and interests.
We do guarantee that we will not disclose to any third party, without the client's written consent, any information obtained by the firm while performing the agreement.
At the same time, we do not guarantee, and are not responsible for, the actions, decisions, or omissions of third parties, including court staff, judges, prosecutors, enforcement officers, staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the management or staff of enterprises, institutions, and organisations of any form of ownership, or of private individuals.
Why? Because we can only guarantee what falls within our own will and responsibility — the decisions, actions, and omissions of third parties are not within our control.
Disputes Law Firm takes on clients from Ukraine and from abroad alike, which is why we offer nearly every payment method commonly used internationally.
You can pay in cash at our office, by card at our office payment terminal, through the Privat24 online banking system, by bank transfer to any branch, or in foreign currency to a foreign-currency account.
For clients abroad, we also offer payment by PayPal and by IBAN transfer in euros or US dollars.
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When setting the fee, we take into account the complexity of the case, the time the work will require, the client's financial circumstances, and other relevant factors provided for by the Law of Ukraine "On the Bar and Practice of Law."
In most cases we offer a fixed fee: an agreed, set amount for the service that covers the work through to the expected result.
Where the complexity or unusual nature of a matter makes it impossible to estimate the time the client's instruction will require, we offer hourly billing instead.
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