Selecting a divorce
lawyer to handle your family law case is a very important decision. The
following are a few important criteria to help in finding the right divorce
lawyer.
Experience And Focus
Any divorce lawyer you
consider should have substantial experience in handling divorce cases in your
location. An experienced divorce lawyer will know the tendencies of the various
judges in your jurisdiction and should be able to use this knowledge to your
advantage. Additionally, that lawyer should practice primarily in the field of
divorce law. Often people will hire a lawyer who practices primarily in some
other area, thinking that any lawyer will do. However, divorce law is a very
specialized field that requires particular skills and experience in order to
have a likelihood of reaching a successful conclusion.
Past Client
Testimonials
Perhaps the best way to
decide which divorce lawyer to use for your divorce case is to find out what
former clients have to say about that lawyer. While divorce is never an
enjoyable process, some divorce lawyers have more success at satisfying their
clients than others. If you do not know someone who has been a client of that
particular divorce lawyer, you should consider asking the lawyer for a list of
clients that you can contact who can describe their experience with the lawyer.
While client confidentiality is important, any good experienced divorce lawyer
should have at least a few former clients who are willing to vouch for him or
her.
Accessible
When a client becomes
dissatisfied with a divorce lawyer, one of the most common complaints is that
they were unable to communicate with the lawyer. It is very important that your
divorce lawyer be accessible and prompt in responding to your phone calls,
emails, and requests for meetings. While you can ask the divorce lawyer about
their office policy, this is another area where you can best evaluate the
divorce lawyer by hearing what former clients have to say.
If a former client of
the lawyer tells you that they found it very difficult to contact the attorney,
or that the lawyer either did not return calls or respond to emails or would
take several days to do so, you should definitely avoid that lawyer. Divorce is
an unpleasant and frustrating process under the best of circumstances. If you
are unable to reach your divorce attorney, or at least someone on his or her
staff, the frustration level can increase exponentially.
Fees
When you make your
initial appointment with the divorce attorney, you should inquire about a
consultation fee. Some lawyers do brief initial consultations for free,
although most experienced divorce lawyers will charge as a consultation fee, or
will charge their normal hourly rate.
During the consultation
it is vitally important that you have a candid discussion with the prospective
divorce lawyer about fees and what you can expect. Typically, an experienced
divorce lawyer will require the payment of a substantial retainer up front,
against which that lawyer's hourly rate and expenses will be charged. You
should find out what that lawyer's hourly rate is, what the up-front retainer
will be, whether any portion of the retainer is refundable if it is not
exhausted, and how often you can expect to receive invoices that detail their
hourly charges and expenses. You also will want to know how detailed the
invoices are. Once again, this is another area where you can get excellent
information from those people who have been clients of that divorce lawyer.
Comfortable
While all the above
issues are important, there is one final question you should ask yourself
before hiring a divorce lawyer. Are you comfortable with that lawyer and are
you confident in his or her abilities? If the answer is anything other than a
resounding "yes," you should keep looking. Your case is too important
to entrust to someone who does not inspire your confidence.
In our experience, it is principally a failure to negotiate, prior to
entering into a marriage and to view marriage as in its correct light as a
contract that lands many people in trouble, once the honeymoon is over, so to
speak, particularly under the intense stress of everyday financial realities,
relationship issues and even more so, once children are born of the marriage.
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