quote:
No client refused on those grounds. That is where I believe attorneys and courts can improve this system - by taking that approach, rather than the mercenary, "I got into lawyering because I like to fight" motherfrickers. Save that for PI work.

i find the "i like to fight" is much more represented in family law attorneys than in PI

and i don't do much contested stuff anymore, but i will say community property issues are where people really get taken to teh cleaners, at least here. the system here insulates the judges from making decisions on custody and it's geared towards working out custody (via hearing officer, mediation, and pre-trial conferences if necessary). child support is a formula.

i used to just list off the major categories (custody, visitation, domiciliary status, child support, spousal support) and check them off one by one "well you're getting joint so i don't want to hear about custody again. the support is a formula so we're not arguing that very much." to focus on the areas of actual conflict. i'd go through them all and we'd pick which ones were at issue. if they picked too many, i would pass them to another attorney (even after telling them that the only people who win in a custody fight are the attorneys)

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Posted by Ace Midnight

Between sanity and madness

Member since Dec 2006

89654 posts

Posted on 9/29/15 at 9:13 am to SlowFlowPro

quote:
i find the "i like to fight" is much more represented in family law attorneys than in PI

I agree - I was just suggesting that is where, as a profession, we have room for improvements. Some days, I don't know if it is the clients demanding these kinds of lawyers or the lawyers push their clients. But, I had the option of declining to engage in mudslinging and fighting over the kids like they were pieces of meat.

quote:
i will say community property issues are where people really get taken to teh cleaners, at least here.

I did a lot of what you did, Jake, in my own way - explaining about what could be fought about and what was a waste of time. Getting a good, accurate DDL was the payoff - if that was done well, then the rest of the divorce went well. It is when that was done either shoddily or with an agenda is when things got dicey.

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Posted by Kracka