Save Time and Money in the Courtroom — Advice from a Family Law Attorney

Google can be a blessing and a curse. At 1:00 AM, when you have a screaming baby that won’t settle, Google is a blessing. However, Google can be quite the curse when you are searching for answers that impact far more than a good night of sleep. For example, “How should I draft a Parenting Plan or [insert potential legal issue here]?”

Listen — we all want to “save money” and handle things we can on our own to achieve that goal. When someone is facing a legal issue, they often believe that attorneys will make things more expensive, litigious, or are a waste of money because they can do it themselves. However, that opinion often comes at a great cost. Generally, if you hire an attorney in the beginning to address your legal issue, it will save you some time fighting in court later, which is usually much more expensive and stressful.

Everyone has heard the expression that “time is money.” Well, the same is true about stress, and delegating stressful tasks to a person with more time or experience can often be a priceless investment despite the cost required. For example, as a working mom of two small kiddos, an investment in house cleaners is a priceless investment to me, as it saves me time and stress. The same is true about hiring an attorney.

As a family law attorney, I sadly see situations that individuals, couples, and even families get themselves into because they took legal action without an attorney. The most stressful situations that I commonly see in my practice are when clients are going through the divorce process or want to establish a parenting plan. Nonetheless, despite my area of expertise, family law often intersects with other areas of the law such as estate law or criminal law.

For instance, I had a case in which my client believed that most of the assets they owned were protected from the pending divorce because they believed the assets were in a trust. In a divorce, if a trust is correctly set up, then generally the trust assets are not included in the marital estate to be divided. Thus, certain trusts affect the division of property. However, in this case, the family executed documents and set up the trust without legal assistance, which resulted in far greater stress and financial burdens on everyone involved because it was not set up correctly. Failing to set up the trust correctly cost this family hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been avoided had the family spent $5,000.00 to $10,000.00 to have the trust drafted properly.

Another common scenario that I often encounter is meeting with potential clients that come to me after signing away their legal rights. Often people who did not consult an attorney and relied on Google, are disappointed in the outcomes of their case. Even where both parties proceed without counsel, there are often vague parenting plans or separation agreements that lead to much more costly litigation post-divorce. Even if you decide to proceed on your own, I would strongly encourage you to meet with one or more attorneys to better understand the process and how to protect your legal interests. Many people think they can change an agreement that they find to be unfair later, that is not so and in fact, it is very rare that a party has a legal basis to rescind an agreement. Hence the importance of seeking a lawyer’s help initially.

Let us help you so that you can save time and money.

Jamie Paine is an experienced attorney that focuses much of her practice on family law. With Jamie’s years of experience as an attorney, she has successfully negotiated and settled many domestic relations cases that resulted in favorable results for her clients. Jamie’s keen negotiation skills help to ease clients’ stress during this already taxing process. Jamie is also an experienced litigator that has the trial skills to handle your case should it need to go to court.