One of the parts of going through a divorce that can be unnerving for many people is deciding whether or not to hire an attorney. For whatever reason(s), some folks tell themselves “I need lawyer advice” but don’t get excited at the idea of paying a person hundreds or thousands of dollars to represent them in a legal case that they wish they didn’t have to deal with (sarcasm ends here!). While going through a divorce can be painful enough, paying another person your hard-earned money to help you with the process seems like adding insult to injury.
Before we get into the topic of today’s blog post, what it means to hire a lawyer and the different ways a lawyer can assist you in your family case, I would like to share some perspectives that I have on what it means to hire a lawyer in a divorce or child custody case.
Leave Family Law to the Experts
Let’s begin by thinking about the hiring process like anything else that is unpleasant in life. We all do things in our day-to-day lives that we don’t necessarily like, but we understand on some level that it is necessary after a year of social distancing, mask-wearing, isolating, etc. I think we all understand what it means to do things we don’t like that ostensibly will benefit us in the long run. Not all of the things that we do in life provide us with immediate gratification or are something that we get overly excited about. I wish I had something profound and enlightening to say about this subject, but I don’t. Hiring an attorney and a family law case is a good idea.
When you have a toothache, do you perform self-examinations and then pull your tooth if necessary? If your car breaks down in the driveway, do you pop the hood up and then fix the vehicle yourself? What about when the air conditioning breaks in your home? Do you fix it, or do you call someone to come in and help? I think you can see where I am going with this. The reality of the situation is that you are likely not an expert in family law, nor should you be. You have a life of your own and have your concerns. A family law attorney has a single-minded focus on helping people just like you and whatever family law matter you find yourself involved in.
Empowering Decision-Making with a Family Attorney
There is nothing wrong with asking another person to help you or taking the advice or perspective of a person who has been there before. If you consider your work, I think you would agree that it takes knowledge of information to be a success and experience. Theoretically, you could spend a month going to law libraries and doing online research. You would probably understand the basics of family law and what will be relevant to your case. However, there are no how-to guides on managing the procedures and real-life situations of an actual family law case. For that, you would need to defer to another person’s expertise and experience.
Hiring a family attorney to represent you in a divorce or child custody case does not mean, but you don’t get to be the person who makes decisions—quite the opposite. An attorney doesn’t dictate what you should do in your case; instead, you gain perspective and insights you wouldn’t typically have due to your lack of experience in family law cases. With that perspective in outlook, you can then make better decisions for yourself and your family.
Empowering Clients Through Legal Guidance
Notice that I did not say that attorneys make decisions for clients. Attorneys act as a navigator throughout your family law case. Like those with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, the best family law attorneys take the time to teach and educate their clients on the issues they are facing so that the client can arrive at their conclusions and make decisions based on those circumstances. Keep in mind that your attorney will never know your circumstance in case better than you do. However, if you and your attorney communicate well and you all are willing to engage a team in your case, you can achieve great success together.
If you are uncomfortable with the idea of having an attorney or deferring to another person when it comes to important aspects of your case, you should write down your concerns and then address them with an attorney during a consultation. Hiring a lawyer is not as simple as driving up and down the street and selecting an attorney whose sign or building you like. Hiring an attorney is more like conducting job interviews where you are the employer in the attorney is the potential employee. It would help if you interviewed an attorney to determine whether or not you and the lawyer are a good match.
Consultations With a Family Law Attorney
If you plan on hiring an attorney for your family law case, then the first thing that you need to think about is interviewing lawyers. That sounds like the least appealing activity on earth, but I can assure you that it is important, nonetheless. I recommend that you come prepared with questions, information, and some patience, as well. You need to be patient because you should not hire the first attorney you speak to just because you need one. Plan and take the time to interview multiple lawyers to determine who suits you and your case the best.
Preparing for Attorney Interviews in Family Law Cases
The first thing I would do when beginning to interview attorneys for your family law case would be to think about your questions. If you lack knowledge about family law and have never been involved in a family law case before, you should find this task relatively straightforward. You’ll need to consider the information required to start a case, the steps to file a lawsuit, and any other actions you can take to facilitate your attorney’s work. Consider that, typically, the easier you make your attorney’s life, the less expensive your case will be.
Once you have a list of questions ready to ask the attorney that you are meeting with, the next thing you should do is consider what information you should bring with you to the consultation. I do not necessarily mean that You should bring in file cabinets worth documents. Still, I mean that you should have some specific information about the length of your marriage, the ages of your children, your employment status, your income history, and any other specific information that an attorney is likely to ask you about the consultation. While the attorney you were meeting with at that point is not your representative, they will need to be able to learn a little bit about your circumstances to provide you with general information.
Active Listening in Attorney Consultations for Family Law Cases
Next, when you go to the consultation with an attorney, you should be prepared to listen just as much as you speak, if not more so. The reason why you will want to pay attention in listening as much as possible in these consultations is that the attorney will not only be providing you with basic information about your particular kind of case but will also be speaking to you in the same way that they will likely speak to you if you choose to hire them. If you feel comfortable with the attorney and their approach in a consultation, you are likely to feel comfortable with them during their time representing you. It will be difficult for you to learn how you feel about the lawyer if you do not take the time to listen to their answers.
Another aspect of this discussion is that I can tell you from experience most people in the consultation are very eager to tell me their side of the story, almost as if the attorney in that consultation is the judge deciding their case in court. If you feel like your back is against the wall in that you have been taken advantage of in some way by your spouse or partner, then I can completely understand wanting to get some things off of your chest. However, it would help if you pulled back the reins on spending the entire consultation providing information to the lawyer, most of which were not important or relevant.
Choosing the Right Attorney: Meeting with Multiple Options
Rather I would spend some amount of time discussing the specifics of your case with the attorney but would spend the lion’s share of your time in this hearing talking about what the process is like filing a family law case card, what information you should be gathering and organizing and a projected timeline for the case. This is the sort of real-world, boots-on-the-ground level advice you will need to succeed in a family law case. This is also the sort of advice and perspective that I nor any other attorney on the Internet can provide to you since I don’t know anything about your specific circumstances.
As I mentioned a moment ago, you should plan on meeting with at least two or three attorneys before deciding which attorney is right for you. Certain attorneys and their personalities will conflict with you and yours. This is not dissimilar to getting into a relationship with an employer or even a spouse. Not every person clicks with you in vice versa. While I am not saying that you need to feel like the attorney could be your friend, you need to feel like you have trust in what the attorney is telling you and a level of comfort sharing information with them.
Building Trust: Importance of Attorney Listening Skills in Family Law Cases
The relationship between an attorney and a client is unique, especially in a family law case, where personal information is shared a great deal; you will need to provide a certain degree of information even in a consultation situation that you may ordinarily share with nobody else. As a result, you should feel like the attorney is attentive and a good listener. Attorneys have a reputation, sometimes, of not being good listeners, but if you can find an attorney who not only provides you with honest information but the incredibly rare listening ear.
An attorney that you hire should have the heart of a teacher rather than the heart of a salesperson. If the attorney provides you with very little in the way of practical information but rather presents you with a sales pitch from the beginning of the consultation until the end, I would be wary if I were you. By the same token, if the attorney takes the time to explain issues to you as thoroughly as time will permit, makes eye contact, and listens, then you likely have a promising match in that attorney.
Understanding Attorney Fees: Essential Considerations When Hiring
The last piece of advice that I would give you regarding hiring an attorney is to be crystal clear on how that attorney operates as far as billing and attorney fees are concerned. You do not want to leave a consultation with a good feeling about a lawyer only to find that you have some degree of misunderstandings regarding how that attorney bills.
Typically, family law attorneys are billed by the hour and charge an upfront retainer for representation. To avoid misunderstandings and problems pawn trying to hire them, I would want to leave that consultation with a crystal clear idea of how the attorney bills, what their policies are on payments, what methods of payment are accepted as well as an estimate of what your case can end up costing in the long run.
Types of Representation Offered by Attorneys
Family law attorneys are typically very flexible in terms of the type of representation they can offer you. Signing up with an attorney does not mean that you are committing to hiring them for a long period. For most people, an attorney in a family case begins representation when the case is filed; that period of representation ends when the judge signs the final order in your case. The vast majority of people do not hire family law attorneys on an ongoing retainer basis.
The benefit to having an attorney representing you in your family law cases is that you will be able to rely upon them for advice, counsel, negotiation with opposing counsel, as well as their presence in any mediation or court appearance that becomes necessary. There are distinct advantages to having an attorney representing you in these scenarios. In my opinion, no degree of research done into family cases can duplicate the sort of assistance provided to you by a lawyer.
Consider Limited Scope Representation with Family Attorneys
With that said, family attorneys can typically represent you in what is known as a limited scope arrangement. For example, you may hire a family law attorney to provide you with information, advice, or help when it comes to filing documents. It would help if you spoke to the attorney about your desire to have a limited scope arrangement like this, and they will let you know whether or not that is something that can be done considering their practice. Before committing to a relationship like this, you should read through any attorney-client contract to determine the extent of the relationship and the lawyer’s help.
Hiring a lawyer to review documentation and draft paperwork is another type of limited scope arrangement you may have with an attorney. Keep in mind that the decisions of a family court judge or what is settled upon mediation are important, but they are only as good as the orders that are written based on those decisions. Your family court orders must mirror what is decided in court or mediation. Therefore, if you do not want to hire an attorney for the day-to-day advice they can provide, you should be able to find many attorneys who are willing to represent you insofar as when you need documentation drafted or paperwork reviewed.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
if you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post</a>; please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free of charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations can go a long way towards helping you learn more about your specific circumstances and family law in general in the state of Texas.
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Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC | Spring Divorce Lawyers
The Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC, routinely handles matters that affect children and families. If you have questions regarding divorce, it’s important to speak with one of our Spring, TX Divorce Lawyers right away to protect your rights.
Our divorce lawyers in Spring, TX, are skilled at listening to your goals during this trying process and developing a strategy to meet those goals. Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC by calling (281) 810-9760 or submit your contact information in our online form. The Law Office of Bryan Fagan, PLLC, handles Divorce cases in Spring, Texas, Cypress, Spring, Klein, Humble, Kingwood, Tomball, The Woodlands, the FM 1960 area, or surrounding areas, including Harris County, Montgomery County, Liberty County, Chambers County, Galveston County, Brazoria County, Fort Bend County, and Waller County.
Bryan Fagan, a native of Atascocita, Texas, is a dedicated family law attorney inspired by John Grisham’s “The Pelican Brief.” He is the first lawyer in his family, which includes two adopted brothers. Bryan’s commitment to family is personal and professional; he cared for his grandmother with Alzheimer’s while completing his degree and attended the South Texas College of Law at night.
Married with three children, Bryan’s personal experiences enrich his understanding of family dynamics, which is central to his legal practice. He specializes in family law, offering innovative and efficient legal services. A certified member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, Bryan is part of an elite group of legal professionals committed to ongoing education and high-level expertise.
His legal practice covers divorce, custody disputes, property disputes, adoption, paternity, and mediation. Bryan is also experienced in drafting marital property agreements. He leads a team dedicated to complex family law cases and protecting families from false CPS allegations.
Based in Houston, Bryan is active in the Houston Family Law Sector of the Houston Bar Association and various family law groups in Texas. His deep understanding of family values and his professional dedication make him a compassionate advocate for families navigating Texas family law.
