Civil Partnerships

Congratulations! The Lesbian and Gay Foundation (LGF) produced 15,000 copies of the first edition of our Civil Partnerships Guide in late 2005. It was such a huge success, that we decided to reprint and update it because there simply aren’t any left!

Over 18,000 same sex registrations took place in the UK in the first year after the civil partnership act became law in December 2005. TheNorth West currently forms 10% of all UK same sex registered partnerships.The statistics, covering the period from December 2005 to September 2006, suggest initial government predictions of 22,000 partnerships by 2010 are likely to have significantly underestimated demand!

We would like to congratulate everyone who has taken part in a Civil Ceremony so far and we hope that this guide will prove useful to those who are currently making plans or thinking about registering their civil partnership.

Paul Martin,
Chief Executive, The Lesbian & Gay Foundation.

O'Neill Patient Solicitors

I am delighted as a co-author of the original Civil Partnership Guide, to see how successful it has been and how well it has been received. I was pleased as an aside to see that the booklet was in the register office where I celebrated my civil partnership with my partner Andrew last November. It is a concise guide, which I think covers all the points that need to be covered, whether you are having a simple ceremony or a slap up affair. I want to thank Paul Martin and all the staff at the LGF who helped me compile the booklet and then took so much care in its preparation and distribution. To those of you that have used it and continue to use it, I hope you have found it as useful as I wanted it to be.

Les Patient,
Senior Partner, O’Neill Patient Solicitors.
Les Patient qualified in 1988. He is senior partner at O’Neill Patient and head of its biggest conveyancing team. Les is openly gay and actively involved with the LGF.

Suzanne Moore,
Family Law Specialist, O’Neill Patient Solicitors.
Suzanne Moore qualified in 1994. Suzanne specialises in all areas of family law including divorce, cohabitation, children etc. Suzanne is a member of the Law Society Children Panel and an Advanced Member of the Law Society Family Panel.

O’Neill Patient Solicitors
2 Chester Road, Hazel Grove
Stockport SK7 5NU
Tel: 0161 483 8555