What to Expect at a Divorce Consultation The first meeting is about orientation purposes. As a potential client, you tell the attorney about your case and decide if you will move forward and work together.
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Feb 04, 2021 ¡ After you have passed this check, you will then set down with your potential lawyer in order to discuss the details of your divorce. The lawyer will ask you for all of the relevant facts concerning the case. This is the time during which you will be able to decide if the lawyer you are talking to is right for your needs. Discuss the pros and cons
Feb 11, 2022 ¡ What to Expect During a Consultation with a Divorce Lawyer. For many people, the end of a marriage is a challenging time characterized by stress and uncertainty. The thought of calling a divorce lawyer to schedule a consultation brings with it a flood of anxiety and questions.
Jul 26, 2021 ¡ Your potential divorce lawyer will be gathering information about the case from you and will ask you several questions so they can recommend solutions. Since you are the one who will be doing most of the talking, you should prepare yourself adequately so you can make good use of the time that you will spend at the lawyerâs office.
Nov 11, 2017 ¡ What to Expect from a Divorce Lawyer Consultation. November 11, 2017. in Brad M. Micklin, Consulting Services, Divorce for Men. When hiring a divorce lawyer, one of the first steps youâll take is to schedule a consultation. A consultation gives you an opportunity to meet with a lawyer, to determine whether he or she can give you the help you need. If youâve never âŚ
Are they comfortable working your case? If they are not, you can move on to the next lawyer.
At least bring with you pay stubs worth three months.
To best prepare yourself to discuss your situation, you should know information about income and bank account balances. Your attorney will want to find out of you have a prenuptial agreement. Also, do you or your spouse have premarital assets, and has anyone of you received an inheritance while you both married? The attorney will use the information you give, so they provide you with guidance. Depending on the specifics of your case, your attorney will tell you if you need a witness or witnesses.
In that case, any evidence such as pictures, videos, messages, social media posts, and other supporting documents that will help prove your case are important.
Even if you do not bring the information with you to the consultation, you will still have to produce the documents eventually for the process to move quickly. Here are some of the documents that you should bring.
After gathering information about your case, the attorney will discuss any potential issues that you may face during the divorce, such as custody and parenting time. Financial aspects will also be discussed, including child support, alimony, equitable distribution, college tuition, real estate, debts and other assets.
Along with the details of your case, the divorce attorney will also gather some basic personal information, including your: address, phone number and email address. The attorney will also want to gather background information, which may include:
Towards the end of the meeting, the attorney will discuss the fees charged for his or her services. The attorney should divulge his or her hourly rate as well as the amount of the initial retainer and how often you will be billed for services.
Along with the details of your case, the divorce attorney will also gather some basic personal information, including your: address, phone number and email address. The attorney will also want to gather background information, which may include: 1 The date of the marriage 2 Employment information of both spouses 3 Names and ages of the children 4 Income information, including assets and debts 5 Whether or not there was a prenuptial agreement in place
The main purpose of the consultation is to discuss your case. Essentially, you are having a conversation with the lawyer about your pending divorce, and you should be the one doing most of the talking.
Most reputable divorce attorneys charge a fee for the initial consultation. You can expect to pay about $200-250 on average. Granted, you may end up spending $500-600 before you find a lawyer who is a good fit for you.
Getting paperwork organized and submitted in advance also benefits you. It forces you to think through concerns, timelines and goals, which is an important part of the divorce process. The other upside of preparing and submitting information in advance is the ability to get the ball rolling on your case right away.
A major part of any divorce is determining how to divide what has been accumulated during the marriage. This starts by preparing a âmarital balance sheetâ to define your financial assets and liabilities.
Most divorce cases have four primary categories to consider:
There are no forms or charts to calculate financial support for a spouse. The duration and amount of any payments following a divorce are determined solely by negotiation. Your lawyer should have some ideas, based upon past experience, as to what you might expect.
Ultimately, the legal process of divorce is more about business than emotions, but those often are difficult to separate. Your lawyer should be able to provide resources to help you work through the emotional aspects, while also focusing on the financial and family issues.
What red flags did your story raise for them? What questions is the lawyer asking you about your situation? This question is your chance to 1) make sure theyâve been hearing you and 2) get insights that could help keep your divorce process moving along without surprises.
You get to choose who helps you through it. Thatâs why I highly recommend interviewing at least 2-3 attorneys before selecting one. Donât let anyone pressure you into working with them, either. This process is going to get harder before it gets easier, so itâs important that the lawyer by your side â the lawyer who is going to be learning a lot about the inner workings of your marriage, your finances, and more â is someone that you trust, respect, and actually like.
Before you pull into the attorneyâs parking lot, repeat this mantra: No two divorces are alike! No two divorces are alike! Having an open mind about the hard thingsâ possible custody schedules, whether or not you need to sell the house, whether or not your family can continue to go on two weeks of vacation each summerâ will help your prospective attorney come up with a strategy that meets your long term goals and makes sense for your unique circumstances.
For many women, the âgoalâ of hiring an attorney may simply be âget me outta this marriage!â But honing in on what you want your life to look like after the divorce dust has settled can be a useful tool for identifying how you want to work through the process of ending your marriage.
Having this goal in mind helped keep things moving, and as a result, her divorce took 364 days between her initial filing and final judgment.
If you want to get your moneyâs worth from a consultation, make sure you bring all of the documents associated with your prenup. The same goes if you and your spouse have started working out a separation agreement (or other agreement related to your pending split) in writing.
For Christy, receiving this information allows her to give the most bang for a potential clientâs buck in terms of an initial consultation. She can give a prospective client a pretty good idea of what will happen to each of those assets and liabilities in a divorce and help a potential client understand what their financial picture will look like post divorce.