A Lawyer’s Guide to Choosing the Right Divorce Attorney

Your divorce lawyer must have business knowledge and experience in addition to knowledge of the law.

When entering into a relationship with a divorce lawyer, evaluate the lawyer’s success. Is he/she a sole practitioner; is it a small “shop”; is it a rented office or do they own a building?

Hiring the wrong divorce lawyer to divide and/or protect your assets if you have assets, a business or a pension can cost you. Divorces often require calculations with respect to finances, your business, and/or real estate. If you are hiring a lawyer who does not have experience and success in business look elsewhere.

Outside of custody issues (which are, clearly the most important issues) divorce is mostly about the five letter word M-O-N-E-Y.

Money matters in your divorce decisions

Make no mistake about it: money not only makes the world go around, it is in the center of all divorce fights. Once the children have been decided through custody battles, forensics and/or agreement, money is the most important issue to be resolved. Money is the reason why Kim Kardashian’s divorce is lasting four times longer than her marriage. Money is the reason many divorces are started and one of the only reasons a divorce is ever resolved.

When it comes to money, your lawyer must have intimate knowledge. Look at his/her position. Does he/she own or operate a large business? Is your lawyer successful? If the answer is no, how can they protect your success? Does your lawyer handle complicated cases with high value assets? If not, use another lawyer. Even if you are not a business mogul or a person of great financial wealth, a settlement mistake can cost you thousands of dollars if you hired a divorce lawyer whose finance and business sense fails to protect you. If you are more successful than your divorce lawyer, something is wrong.

Evaluate your potential divorce attorney closely

A good divorce lawyer knows about business. A good divorce lawyer knows about the dynamics of pension plans, retirement plans, stock and bond holdings, as well as partnership interest and real estate. In every consult with a prospective client, a divorce lawyer must ask:

  1. What do you do?
  2. How much do you make?
  3. How much do you have?

It is necessary to protect the client. A retainer should not deviate – go up or down based on those questions. At our firm, low retainers and a 5 an hour rate are not based on a client’s means and wealth.

Far too many clients are swayed to the offices of “caring” divorce lawyers who advertise that they are “compassionate” and that they offer “personal attention”. As much as a divorce lawyer must be caring, compassionate and human, they should also have a business mind and have a network of professionals that they work with in connection with evaluating, splitting and/or recommending business and asset strategies.

If nothing else, a lawyer who is a good businessman can do a cost benefit analysis of your divorce. Many divorce lawyers will share stories amongst themselves of clients who would spend ten thousand dollars rather than agree to split assets worth only a fraction of that sum. Clearly, at any given time, a good business evaluation can be done on your divorce. Is what you are fighting for worth it in the long run? Does your attorney have so few cases in his business that he needs your case to continue rather than to settle? These are questions you must ask when interviewing attorneys, especially if the firm has less than ten practicing full time attorneys.

Trust proven legal advocates

At Bryan L. Salamone & Associates, P.C., we have been handling high-valued clients, international clients, as well as celebrities and individuals with complex and far reaching business holdings. We understand the big picture and we have the knowledge and expertise to make recommendations that will save our clients money and preserve their assets. We have the valued relations with experts and accountants so that your business can be reviewed and evaluated so that you can receive sound advice as your cost and benefits of going forward at any given part of the litigation.

The lawyers at Bryan L. Salamone & Associates handle such a large volume of cases that they can provide you with an accurate statistical data of what the Courts are doing, not in general but at this very specific time in your County. You will not be handled as a number because our attorneys focus only on divorce and family law. It is only with such a large staff and the wide variety and volume of cases that we can give you the best advice at the time you need it most. Call for a free consultation or contact us online.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*