Divorce
I have helped to divorce more people than I can recall. If you run a search under my name in the court dockets located at www.oscn.net, you will pull up results on many of the divorce cases I have been involved in over the years (I say "many" because clerks are not perfect and sometimes fail to record that an attorney appeared on a case so that the docket does not reflect his appearance in the matter). Your search will reveal I have done my fair share of divorces.
Some people come to me with unreasonable expectations of how things should be or how the court system should work. Some people come to me with questions and no clue at all. Regardless, after asking a potential client of series of questions and gaining an understanding of their situation, and then determining what county's Court the case will be heard in, I am usually able to inform them what to expect. This may result in crushed expectations or pleasant surprises. Either way, people going through a divorce need to know what is in their control and what is not (the law and the legal system). I do by best to keep them informed, and once I am clear what it is they want, I do my very best to meet their goals and to get them results.
A divorce involves many issues. Among them are e.g., custody, visitation, support, property and debt division. Ultimately, you are either going to settle these cases by agreements worked out between the parties and their attorneys, if any, or let a Judge decide them for you. A Judge makes their decision on a limited set of things they see and hear - documents and testimony. Judges are normal human beings, elected, appointed, or otherwise ordained by other human beings to make decisions over those human beings' lives. Yet they are only human, and what is "right" and what is "wrong" is often unclear, and they often make mistakes according to the minds of many people (at least half) who go through divorces and walk out of a trial. For this reason, as well as to save time and money, it is best to avoid a trial and allowing a Judge to make a decision about your life, if you and the other party can reach agreements as to the issues in the case. Such agreements may be reached through a series of communications between the parties' attorneys or at a conference with the parties and their attorney's present and, occasionally, a paid third-party mediator.
By the same token, do not "roll over" and settle for less simply because you are threatened by or scared of your spouse or too tight to hire an attorney. Hire an attorney to inform you of your rights and to fight for you, if necessary. Understand that a practicing divorce attorney appears regularly in Courts and in front of the Judge who may make decisions about your life--and therefore knows that Judge and how he or she thinks whereas you do not. Even if you think you have an agreement with your spouse as to the issues in your divorce, contact an attorney before any document is prepared or signed. A flawed property division can cost you thousands of dollars. An inaccurate child support order can result in your unfairly paying hundreds of dollars each month (or receiving that much less than you should). You may be entitled to alimony or other things of which you are unaware, such as a portion of your spouse's retirement or equity in a marital home. I can tell you what these things are.
In the end, any errors or failure to protect your rights on your part will cost you much more than you would otherwise retain an attorney, and if you have children, your time with them is priceless. I encourage you not to "do-it-yourself" and get a bad wrap. Retain me, or at least some attorney out there who regularly practices in family law, and you be a comfortable, happier person. At the end of the day, you will not have the "what if" questions in the back of your mind, and you will know you tried -- and hopefully got results. Let me help to get you those results.
My retainers range from $500 for an already-filed divorce with no children and no real property to $1,500 for a divorce with children where a parent is out-of-state and there is substantial property to divide and other pending Court cases. Retainers for most cases fall somewhere between those amounts, but within an e-mail or phone call, I can quote you an exact amount.
