What Word Infuriates Family Law Attorney's The Most

Believe it or not, the most exasperating word a family law attorney can hear is MEDIATION. Why, because once most, not all, attorneys who practice primarily litigation involving dissolution of marriage and child support and custody issues get a case, they view them as a continuing stipend. The more court hearings they can force, the more money they can make. The more assets they can convince their client they are entitled to, whether true or not, the more conflict and angst they can conjure up and the more money they can ensure themselves during the long drawn out fight that accompanies the litigation fiasco. I have seen literally dozens and dozens of cases end in mindless and needless court battles, because the attorneys have created issues out of whole cloth. They have stirred the pot, like witches brew. Is their interest what is best for their client, or what is best for them? I am sorry to say, that in so many cases, my colleagues put their interests, ahead of their clients.

Because of this pretense marital cases can cost the husband and wife thousands of dollars. I was personally involved in one marital dispute in which the wife was represented by one of the top boutique marital dissolution law firms in Beverly Hills. There was a large corporation involved, which I represented, and the husband was represented by a two person well known law firm. The wife's law firm had two partners and several associates sitting around a conference table during the rented judge trial while the husband had one. The wife's attorneys' had her believing she could get ½ of the corporation and run it, when she had never stepped foot in it and her husband had been running it for years extremely successfully and with an independent board of directors. Telling her she would get to run the business and that her husband would do everything to steal money and keep her from getting anything was an abominable lie meant to exacerbate her already vicious feelings about her husband, with the only reason being the lining of the law firm's pockets.

I witnessed this Beverly Hills law firm charging well over $1,000.00 per hour for a three week trial and that was subsequent to my attempting to settle the corporate issues for a very fair amount of money and future participation in profits, which would have been huge, with her own accountant able to review all financial records of the company. I offered this settlement even before a trial was set. After the three week trial the wife's lead attorney came to me to settle the corporation's part of the case for $17MM after taxes were paid. This for a corporation that was, at that time showing a profit of well over $17MM the prior year and was growing at the enormous rate of twenty percent a year. My offer prior to trial was well over twice as much, but it was rejected and now the wife's attorney was coming to me with this ridiculous offer to settle.

You see, the firm had already exceeded $1MM in fees and I am quite confident did not want to finish the trial which had gone on for, as I wrote above, three weeks, because they knew their client was never going to be able to run the corporation, even though that was what they promised their client they would get for her. As much as I wanted to protect the wife from this disastrous settlement, I was representing the corporation and bound by ethical duty not to do so.

I cringed when I went to my client, the corporation, and told its board about my settlement, because I knew how incredibly low it was, but I accomplished my job. On the other hand the wife's law firm essentially through her under the proverbial bus. These kinds of stories unfortunately happen every day. It happens in all types of litigation, but more in family law than any other litigation.

So how do you avoid these tremendous fees and bad outcomes? You seek good mediators who have no skin in the game and who only care about doing one thing. That one thing is seeing to it that the parties reach a resolution of their case at the least possible cost, both financially and emotionally. As mediators we help guide you through the process of developing your own resolution. By being the master of your own destiny you own the process and decisions as opposed to attorneys and a judge. When you own the decision you feel better about yourself and, in many cases, your spouse or other party with whom you may be locked in conflict. This helps to take much of the emotion out of the mediation which is especially important when dealing with issues involving children insofar as you and your spouse may have years of co-parenting children well under the age of eighteen and continuing your relationship with your children's families.

Many times women feel more comfortable with a female mediator and men with a male mediator. This is why we have developed the concept of cross gender mediation. To avoid this preference issue, both a man and woman are offered to facilitate these cases at the cost of the usual single mediator. This company has as its major goal, keeping people who are at their most vulnerable condition, focused on their children first, if there are any, and their assets and liabilities as opposed to the unconstructive feelings that have lead them to this stage of their marriage, and to do so at a cost that will not deplete the parties bank accounts.

Find a Divorce Lawyer - How to Find the Best Family Law Attorney

Make an Informed Decision When Retaining a Divorce Lawyer

Finding the right family law attorney (or divorce lawyer) is a process that many people are not entirely comfortable with. People often don't know what qualifications to look for. Often the only information people have to go on is a recommendation from a friend, or listings in a phone book. But retaining legal representation for your divorce is a process that warrants some extra due diligence on your part. Here are some tips to help you find the best divorce attorney for you:

Create a list:
You could open the phone book to 'divorce lawyers' and just point to see which you see first. But there is a better way. If you feel comfortable asking friends to recommend a divorce lawyer that may be a good place to start. You can also check one of several reputable family law yellow pages on the internet. Those directories will help you find qualified divorce lawyers in your area. Make sure you only consider family law attorneys who practice in the county where you live. The details of family law can vary significantly from one county to another.

Narrow the list:
Whittle your list into a "short list" of lawyers who are actually worth interviewing.

    Look for lawyers who have devoted their entire practice to the area of family law. Several states offer certifications in family law legal specialization.
    Ensure that the divorce attorneys on your list are in good standing with your state bar.
    Also, while there is no single label that universally identifies good divorce lawyers, a generally respected lebel is the Martindale Hubbell peer review rating. Attorneys only qualify for this rating after they have been admitted to the bar for five years or more.

Meet face-to-face:
Once you have narrowed the field to a manageable number of candidates, schedule in-person meetings with each of the divorce lawyers on your list.

    Be aware of the responsiveness of each firm or attorney to your meeting request. You want to be sure that the family law attorney you retain is able to devote an adequate amount of time to your case; if it takes 3 business days or more to get a call back it may be an indication that they are too busy to give your case the attention it deserves.
    When you do meet with your short-list candidates, ask about their experience with cases like yours. For example, if you expect a contentious custody battle, ask them to talk about their experience with such cases.
    Realize that the attorney you interview may not be the one who is actually assigned to your case. Ask which associate will be working on your case, and meet that individual as well. He or she will likely be your day-to-day point of contact and it is important that you feel comfortable working with him/her.

If it's worth hiring a divorce lawyer for your case, it's worth this extra homework up front. Take the time to create a qualified list of candidates and have a better chance of finding the best divorce attorney for you.

How to Pick the Best Family Law Attorney for Your Divorce

It is a very crucial decision to select the best family law attorney to represent you in your divorce case. Before taking the final decision, you have to take into consideration some important aspects such as collecting information about the divorce laws in your state and also decide the type of family law attorney that you want.

Collecting information about the divorce laws in the region will help you to select the right type of attorney as you wanted. You can ask for recommendations from your close friends and relatives about the best family law attorney in your place. Look out for at least two or three law attorney before finalizing the law attorney for your divorce.

It is also necessary to consider the experience of the attorney before hiring them. Hiring an experienced attorney in family law will surely be beneficial for you. There is a general belief among individuals who have filed divorce papers in court that divorce case is not a critical one and any lawyer can represent your case in court.

This belief is wrong. You have to hire an attorney who has good knowledge of family law and is experienced in this field. Some basic information that is to be enquired about while hiring a family law attorney is as follows:

    Fix an appointment with two or three attorney and interview them before making the final decision. Closely observe and examine his/ her reactions about your particular case and also ask for reference of any past client to discuss about their experience
    Discuss with your attorney about the time period required for the case and the expenses required for the case
    Communicate effectively about your expectations with your attorney and ask a lot of questions related to case. Never judge and make decision about the attorney based on the appearance
    Check out whether the attorney is a computer savvy or not and also discuss your case. Also inquire about the strategies which can be taken in your case. You should also inquire who would help you in the absence of the attorney in your case, if there is any urgent situation
    Care should be taken while communicating with your attorney. While discussing your case, be specific to your case. You should also find out information about the attorney, check out how divorce cases were handled by him/her
    You should be comfortable in discussing all your queries with your lawyer. In case, you are not comfortable with your lawyer or are not able to communicate properly with the lawyer, then it is not the right decision to hire that attorney for your case. Before finalizing an attorney, make sure that the person has inspired confidence in you and would surely work in your interest

Thus, all the above mentioned information will help you to select the best family law attorney for your case. It will inform you about the aspects which are to be considered while selecting an attorney.

Family Law Software - How to Lower Child Support and Make Your Custody Schedule

There can be many advantages to using a family law software in your custody case and there are many various types of software programs that have been developed to help with family law and custody cases. Some of the programs allow you to create child custody agreements. Others help you calculate child support payments. Many family law attorneys use these programs in their cases, and more and more parents are downloading them and finding them to be helpful.

There are a number of programs that help you create your child custody agreement. Oftentimes the programs will let you set up a basic, rotating custody schedule and the program maps it on a calendar for any length of time you specify. This lets you play with the calendar and try out different options for visitation and custody. Because there are so many programs available, you want to make sure that you get the software that lets you do everything you need to. Some of the programs calculate time share percentages and overnight percentages while you create your calendar. This is important for the parents to know how much time they have with the children, and it also can help you figure out child support payments. You also want to make sure that the interface is intuitive and easy to use. The nicer programs let you click and drag on the days of the calendar to create visitation days and special events. They should also allow you to easily put in the holiday schedule you want. Again, the better programs will have a list of the holidays that you allocate to each parent--and the program applies it to the calendar. Then you can print off your calendar and have all of the custody and visitation time laid out (with different colors of days for mom and dad).

Along with creating a custody and visitation schedule, a good program will let you include provisions and stipulations for your child custody agreement. These are the basic rules that the parents want each other to follow while raising the kids. It can include that the other parent is notified when a parent gets the child a passport. Or, the other parent can request an itinerary when a parent takes the child on vacation. Some programs have a list of provisions that you can check if you want included, and sometimes you can even add your own personal ones.

Child support software is also another important part of the family law software. Every state uses a software to accurately calculate child support payments. It can be helpful for parents to get this software so they can know how much child support they will be paying. Using a combination of the programs, many parents find that they can lower their child support payments. This is because almost every state uses some form of time share percentages or overnight percentages to calculate the child support. However, these numbers are very difficult to calculate. Many times the courts estimate or guess these percentages. A parent who has a software that figures these numbers out according to the calendar can know exactly how much the child support should be. The parent can also try several different custody and visitation schedules to figure out how to lower the child support payment.

Family law software is being incorporated by more and more attorneys, and divorced parents are also finding it useful. Look through all of the options before purchasing a software to make sure that it can help you with your case. If it's possible, download a free trial of a program so that you can try it out before you buy it. Then you can put it to work to help with your custody issues.

Family Law Lawyers - For Legal Problems of a Family

Family Law Attorneys and Family Law Lawyers generally practice family law and take up family related cases of all kinds. These can be marriage, prenuptial agreements, adoption, domestic violence, separation, child custody and support, divorce, negotiation, adjudication, annulment, division of the property accumulated during the marriage, child abduction, alimony, kidnapping or child seizure, abuse in the marriage, emancipation, etc. etc. and many more cases related to family. They also manage cases related to property related laws; criminal laws, trust and probation law, etc.

The most of the cases that comes to a family law lawyers are of separation, divorce, and child custody or child abuse cases. There are a number of things to be considered in details in such cases and family law lawyers are expert in all legal requirements of such cases.

If Family Law Lawyers have more experienced than compared to qualifications then they are thought to be ideal. There is lots of negotiation and documentation to be done when taking up a family case. These lawyers are can usually support the person and his family - emotionally, morally and professionally. They help in reducing the pain of separating a person from their children or from the spouse. As family law differs in each state, they deal with it professionally as they know about the laws prevailing in that state

Family law lawyers charge their fees depending on the kind of case. Most lawyers charge either a flat rate or an hourly fee - after the divorce is legally accepted by the court. The hourly fees depend on the area or state where the case is to be presented. Also usually, the attorneys charge on retainer basis just like regular lawyers specialized in other areas.

Skilled Family Law Attorneys Recommend Divorce Mediation

The divorce process is often fraught with volatile emotions and intense stress. The most skilled family law and divorce attorneys are those that encourage divorce mediation to their clients wherever possible. In fact, mediation is a compulsory first step in the divorce process in a growing number of states.

With complicated divorce cases that involve child custody and significant asset distribution challenges, even those parties who initially sought to engage in an amicable divorce may find themselves caught up in bitter disputes. Divorce mediation is an excellent alternative to traditional divorce litigation that can save significant sums of money, while helping divorcing couples to reach a divorce agreement that empowers them in a less adversarial process by working through issues with a neutral third-party.

Trained in helping those seeking a divorce to reach agreements, a divorce mediator focuses on solutions over one or more meetings to discuss each point of contention. Since the mediator cannot offer legal advice, divorce lawyers or family law attorneys are generally present during mediation sessions and may consult privately with clients to offer advice to her or him during the mediation process. Trained mediators help to keep discussions on track and are experts at calling for breaks and engaging in reality checks when tensions rise. Building on success, professional mediators can help couples find resolutions to smaller disagreements initially to help them gain trust in the process and see the benefits of the mediation process.

From simple, uncontested divorces to those involving significant issues such as asset valuation and property distribution, alimony, child custody and parenting matters including child support and maintenance, retirement and other potential issues, marriage or long-term relationship termination is often much smoother using mediation rather than going to trial to resolve a divorce. The mediation process can decrease misunderstandings and help to set the tone for a process that is solution-focused and based on mutual compromise.

Flexible and confidential, divorce mediation offers a setting that emphasizes open, healthy communication. Particularly for parents, mediation can dramatically help to deal with the emotional realities that come with determining and communicating parental roles and responsibilities during the divorce process and well into the future, while keeping the needs of children at the forefront.

Divorce mediation works best if both parties come ready to negotiate, pursue equitable agreements, and are willing to empathize with one another's position. If there is a high degree of conflict and anger or one or both parties are unwilling to approach their divorce with a spirit of give and take, divorce mediation is not likely a viable alternative and litigation including a trial will ensue. Litigation can result in higher levels of spite and frustration, deepening miscommunication that is so important to avoid, particularly when there are children involved. It is important to note that when spousal abuse is an issue, mediation is not a viable option.

Experienced child custody and divorce attorneys practicing family law will likely suggest divorce mediation to clients to shorten the divorce process, facilitate ongoing communication that is so vital to the co-parenting process, save clients money, and reduce the amount of animosity that results from divorce.