While a “good” divorce lawyer is subjective and will be different for everyone, there are a few questions that you can ask yourself in order to find the right divorce attorney for you.
The answer to this question might seem obvious, but there are a couple of caveats. You may not need your divorce attorney to have an office that is extremely close to where you work or live. Ideally, the lawyer you choose will have an office within driving distance of you. However, hiring an attorney that’s really close to where you live could be of detriment to you if you live far away from where your divorce case will actually be heard.
For example, if you live in City A, but your divorce case will be heard at the courthouse in City B and City B is 4 hours away, you may want to consider hiring an attorney in City B so that you won’t be billed for unnecessary travel costs. Alternatively, if you hire an attorney whose office is far away from where your case will be heard, you may incur additional costs because your attorney will need to travel to you for the hearings.
Generally, you don’t need to look for attorneys that are gender specific, unless you have a preference. Whatever attorney you hire will do the best job they can in providing you with the desired outcome of your case.
If you’re wondering if you should hire a collaborative lawyer, it helps to know that a “collaborative divorce” is when both spouses hire their own attorneys and agree to work out the terms of their divorce without taking their issues to court. Essentially, both parties agree to work together to resolve the issues that come up in the divorce process.
Ultimately, you should do your research and hire an attorney that you feel comfortable in working with. For additional questions, you can review our common questions webpage here.
Obviously, if you are not paying an attorney – you will save money upfront. Even though people do go through simple divorces without an attorney, the chances of a divorce remaining simple is low. I often hear of people who represent themselves through the divorce process and I am not surprised to find out that they lost many rights that they would have kept had they hired a good family law attorney. There are numerous rights that most people are unaware that they have. Without an attorney advising them, those that self-represent as pro-se will remain in the dark, unaware about their rights when they could have, and should have, received a better settlement.
When we are emotionally invested with our own case, as the case often is when we represent ourselves, we allow our passion to blind our ability to reason. The divorce process is an emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows that some describe as being more painful than the death of a loved one. It would logically follow that we will experience the same stages of grief that we experience when a loved one dies. Such emotional turmoil creates a passion in us that clouds our normal reasoning ability. Thus, self-represented divorcees have a high likelihood of unreasonably focusing their attention on matters of slight, if any, significance. This causes them to miss the forest for the trees and they end up becoming less likely to obtain the outcome they seek. We often hear the old saying that “we are our own worst enemy.” I believe that to be true when going through the divorce process and that is one of the reasons why I will hire an attorney to represent myself. Good family law attorneys can see our cases from an objective and professional perspective. Such a perspective allows them to avoid missing the forest for the trees, keeps their focus on the relevant issues that will help us and our cases, protects us from further emotional turmoil, and guards our rights through the process.
Why is it said that he who represents himself has a fool for a client? The self-represented pro-se divorcee is likely to lose much more money in the long run than they would have spent had they hired an attorney who can help them understand their rights and mediate, negotiate, or litigate to keep them. The long term costs of the loss of rights affect our pocketbook, our children’s lives, and our own quality of life. How much time would you like to have with your kids? What will your parenting plan look like? How will your assets be divided? There is something to be said about letting your attorney work for you to advocate for your future. We would not have to negotiate with our spouse or ex-spouse directly. This can protect us from a lot of the emotional costs involved in our divorce case.
At first glance, it may seem like a good idea to go through the divorce process on your own. After all you can save upfront costs on attorney fees. However, your long term financial and emotional costs may outweigh your short term benefit. Thus, if you would like to save yourself more money in the long run, be able to rest assured that your case is being handled professionally and that your rights are being watched out for, rather than attempting to deal with the complexities of the law while you are going through the grieving process, then I recommend hiring a good family law attorney to work for you through the divorce process.
Warm regards,
James P. McGarvey
Intermountain Legal, p.c.
(801) 784-8654
[email protected]
Attorney fees and expenses can quickly accumulate to overwhelming amounts in contested divorce cases. Each week, Inetermountain Legal will provide you with a tip on how to reduce the cost of your divorce.
TIP #1. GET A HANDLE ON YOUR FINANCIAL SITUATION BEFORE FILING FOR DIVORCE.
In Utah, marital property and debts are generally distributed equally between the parties. Resolving property issues should not be difficult. However, sorting through financial records can be one of the mosttime-consuming steps of the divorce process. This is particularly true where one or both parties came into the marriage with substantial premarital assets. Accounting may also be difficult where one party has been primarily responsible for finances, leaving the other party in the dark about what assets and debts have been accrued.
To streamline your divorce and limit the time you will spend conducting discovery, you should learn as much as possible about your financial situation before filing. Run a credit report on yourself. Collect your most recent statements from bank accounts, retirement accounts and credit card accounts. Open the bills and mortgage statements that are delivered to your home. Make separate files for marital property and separate property.
If possible, minimize the number of joint debts, assets and expenses you share with your spouse. Pay off joint credit cards. Open your own separate checking and savings accounts. Take half of the money from joint accounts and then stop using those joint accounts. Take your spouse’s name off the loan for your vehicle. If you are worried about alimony, limit the amount of money you contribute to your spouse’s expenses and debts.
The family law team at Intermountain Legal is experienced in discovering financial assets. Our family law attorney, Hailey Black, can advise you on the issues and options that relate to your unique case and your specific set of financial circumstances. If the financial issues in your case seem overwhelming, contact Intermountain Legal for a free divorce consultation.
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