Family Law
Family law is emotionally draining for everyone. It always involves a complete change to what you thought your life was going to be, and that is a difficult thing to take. Most people who come to me with a family law issue come with some fear. They have heard horror stories of this divorce where the other person got everything and they were left destitute, or another person received custody of the kids and they had no business with children and shut their former spouse out of the kids’ lives. If I can tell you one certain thing about family law, it is that every case is different. No two people react the same way, and when you include the impact on the kids, the reactions and the results are never the same. The stories your friends tell you about their divorce of their friend’s or family members usually offer no guidance to how yours is going to go.
The good news is that it does not have to be a terrible, expensive, brutal grind. In fact, if you have children, I hope for you that it isn’t. Because whether you like or hate each other, you are stuck together if you have children unless one of you literally does not care at all about the children and is going to disappear. If not, though, your relationship does not end when they turn 18. Maybe child support is not part of the equation then, but you are still going to see each other. Your children will graduate college, have children of their own, still want to see both their parents on Christmas, have various family issues that they will want and need both their parents to assist them in. Both of you have a choice to make when you get divorced with children. You can let whatever led you to get your divorce become your child’s problem, one that they have to live with and agonize with as part of their daily life from here on, or you can remember that they did not create it and should not have to suffer for it.
Likewise, if you do not have children, there is an easy way and a hard (expensive) way to get divorced. The easy way is to realize that marital property is likely going to be equally divided, with limited exceptions, so you can spend your money fighting, only to have the court auction your assets and split cash, or you can come to a decision that makes financial sense for both of you.
All that being said, sometimes you have to fight. If you are my client, and your spouse thinks they are going to get out of paying child support, or out of giving you a fair distribution of your assets, they’re wrong. If we need to go to trial to make sure your kids grow up in a safe home with financial support, then that is exactly what we will do. I will make sure you understand what you are entitled to receive, what is involved in getting it and how we prove you’re entitled to it, and I will make sure you are ready for trial so we can get you the maximum the law will allow.
