For individuals
Personal legal questions deserve a clear and understandable strategy.
Anyone who privately becomes involved in a legal dispute usually has two problems: the matter itself and the uncertainty about what happens now. We take the second off your hands — with an understandable assessment, a clear next step and an open statement of what is realistic.
General information. The legal assessment depends on the circumstances of each case.
Circumstances
Clarify the context
Evidence
Preserve documents
Deadlines
Explain any urgency
Approach
Discuss the next steps
Topics in detail
Three areas where good preparation makes a real difference
Each page explains typical questions, shows hypothetical examples and describes which documents help and how a review proceeds.
Contract & consumer matters
Purchase, service and subscription contracts: organising the paperwork, telling termination from withdrawal and clarifying the next step.
Find out more: Contract & consumer matters
Family & personal legal matters
Separation, maintenance, custody and contact, and personal agreements: putting things in order, communicating with care and spotting cross-border elements early.
Find out more: Family & personal legal matters
Succession & estate matters
After a death in the family or when planning ahead: reviewing documents, organising questions about the estate and taking cross-border connections into account.
Find out more: Succession & estate matters
Overview
Understandable rather than formulaic
Legal correspondence is often worded in such a way that even those involved find it hard to understand. That is not a law of nature. We explain to you in ordinary language what it is about, what options exist and where the risks lie — and we do so before costs arise. What you decide afterwards, you decide on an informed basis.
The second point is pace. In many private matters, deadlines run without being obvious at first glance: when recovering a payment, when disclaiming an inheritance, when objecting to a notice, when asserting compulsory-share claims. We therefore first examine whether something needs to be arranged at short notice, and only then the substantive legal position in detail.
The third point concerns the foreign element, which is present more often than expected: an account or a property abroad, a decedent with residence in another state, a fraudster who has acted via a foreign platform, a separated parent in another country. In these cases it is often not the legal question that decides, but the question of which law applies and where something can be enforced.
Practice areas and specialisms
How we assist private individuals
Which steps make sense in your case emerges from the facts. We agree possible measures and the expected costs with you in advance.
Help for those affected by fraud
Whether investment fraud, a fake shop, phishing or a fabricated relationship — what happens in the first days is decisive.
- Review immediate measures to recover the payment
- Secure evidence before accounts and profiles disappear
- Prepare a criminal complaint and accompany the investigation
- Examine civil-law claims and rights to information
Protect assets
Securing assets is unspectacular and is most effective beforehand. In an acute case, the point is to prevent further outflow.
- Trace payment routes and have assets secured
- Information claims against banks and platforms
- Interim relief, where admissible and warranted
- Precautionary drafting: powers of attorney and dispositions
Inheritance law & estates
Inheritance cases are rarely only a legal question. Deadlines are short, and assets abroad change the applicable legal system.
- Examine disclaimer of inheritance and deadlines
- Partition a community of heirs
- Compulsory-share and information claims
- Estates with foreign assets and will drafting
Family law
In separations, a matter-of-fact approach decides the outcome. We represent your position clearly, without enlarging the conflict.
- Separation, divorce and equalisation of accrued gains
- Maintenance for children and spouses
- Custody and contact rights
- Cross-border situations and jurisdiction
Overview
When you should get in touch
The following scenarios describe typical starting positions, not concrete mandates. They are intended to show where urgency may be required.
- 01
You have transferred money to an unknown recipient
Get in touch as early as possible and make no further payments — including for alleged fees or unlocks. Depending on the payment route and the timing, recovery may be possible; that cannot be promised.
- 02
You have learned of an inheritance
A short deadline applies to disclaimer, which begins with knowledge of the accrual of the inheritance. Before you act, it should be clarified whether the estate has value or is over-indebted — and whether foreign assets change the applicable legal system.
- 03
You have received a lawyer’s letter or a demand for payment
Do not react without review, but do not fail to react at all. Deadlines in such letters are to be taken seriously; the claims asserted in them are not always well founded. A brief review is usually cheaper than the consequences of missing a deadline.
- 04
A separation is imminent and assets are located abroad
Jurisdiction and applicable law can diverge in international situations and significantly affect the outcome. A review before the first steps may be required.
Related information
Related information
- Fraud & ScamImmediate assistance, evidence preservation and payment tracing in digital fraud cases.
- Succession lawEstates, communities of heirs and compulsory-share claims.
- Family lawSeparation, maintenance and custody, including with a foreign element.
- For businessesLegal topics in the business sphere.
Contact
Describe your matter
An enquiry does not establish a client relationship or responsibility for monitoring deadlines. If a deadline is approaching, do not rely on this form alone.
- General information. The legal assessment depends on the circumstances of each case.