How to Survive Your Divorce Lawyer

by G. S. Llewellyn

Divorce is a painful procedure, it is draining on your emotions and on your finances. Written by a para-legal with more than 25 years' experience in the field, this book is designed to act as a guide in seeking the right divorce attorney and cutting expenses during this extremely difficult time in your life.

Non-fiction, Self-Help, Divorce

ISBN 1-59431-511-6

Cover art by Shelley Rodgerson

Also available in HTML and RTF formats



INTRODUCTION

You hear a knock and hurry toward the door. A nicely-dressed man says your name and you nod your head. Before you have a chance to ask what the man wants, he shoves an envelope toward you and announces that you are being served. Stunned, you hold the envelope in your hand while watching the process server’s retreating back. As your shaking fingers open the envelope, questions race through your mind. Has your soon-to-be ex-spouse decided not to settle the divorce and go to trial? Has your spouse’s over-zealous attorneys made a mistake and served you with papers containing additional demands despite their client’s wishes to settle?

Holding the legal document in your trembling hands, you scan through it. That’s when you realize that you have been served with papers asking a Judge for a money judgement against you and/or a lien on your home. But the real shocker is that the demand is not from your spiteful spouse or their bull-dog lawyers. Your own attorney, to whom you have given both your money and confidence, has made a motion not only to be relieved as your counsel because of unpaid fees, but to also have a judgement filed against you!

DID YOU KNOW THIS COULD HAPPEN?

FEW PEOPLE DO.

This is the very scenario this book will help you avoid. The time to understand how to cut legal expenses isn’t after you hired an attorney. The time is from the first moment you know a divorce is imminent. That is when you need to:

*protect your rights as a parent;

*protect and document your assets;

*find potential attorneys;

*understand the retainer agreement used in matrimonial matters;

*suggest modifications to the retainer agreement; and

*choose an attorney who is right for you and right for your budget.

The time to cut down on fees, know what to look for in monthly billing statements, how to negotiate fees, and protect your rights in the matrimonial process is right now, not after you have handed over your hard-earned money to an attorney for a retainer.











ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Having worked as a legal secretary and paralegal for nearly twenty years and having gone through my own divorce before I entered the legal field, I have seen many people, including myself, sabotage their own case even before they contacted an attorney. I have heard from attorneys, paralegals and secretaries at firms throughout the country about clients who made expensive mistakes before contacting an attorney, clients who retained firms they couldn’t afford, racked up unnecessary fees, and waited until it was too late to contest their attorney’s billing statements.

Through the years I have received hundreds of calls from people who were not pleased with the firms they had hired, were stunned and confused by the billing process, and were calling to set up an appointment to switch counsel. These clients, despite the fact that they had read and signed a Statement of Client’s Rights as required to be given to them by an attorney to ensure the clients’ rights in the legal process, still did not understand their legal rights.

So how could I help people going through a divorce?

After reading this book you will have a workable, street-wise blueprint on what to do when you decide or are told that a divorce is imminent. Avoiding mistakes, which could come back to haunt you in the form of additional grief in relation to your children and assets, will save you thousands of dollars in legal fees.

This book will explain:

*where to find a referral for an attorney;

*making a list of questions to ask when setting up an appointment;

* what to look for during the interview;

* changes you might want to make to the retainer agreement;

*how to keep fees down during the divorce;

*what you should look for in the monthly billing statements;

*how you should be treated by your attorneys; and

*how to address other areas of concern that will help you through the most devastating and possibly expensive time of your life.









CHAPTER 1



BABY, IT’S OVER

The Initial Steps To Take When A Divorce Is Imminent

Chapter I will explain how to protect your assets, prepare lists of debts and monthly obligations, and how to write a marital history. By preparing information before you retain an attorney and not committing some common errors that could come back to haunt you in the legal maze you will soon be entering, you can save thousands of dollars.

THE TIME TO CUT DOWN ON LEGAL

EXPENSES IS NOW!

Your spouse suddenly tells you that the marriage is over. Or maybe it is you who wants out. Either way, the air is charged with emotions. This, however, is not the time to go into hysterics or spout accusations and threats. Like a soldier who hears enemy fire, this is the moment when you need to stop and regroup.

Remember: Marriage may be considered by many as the cornerstone of society and divorce may be rated as one of the top emotional traumas one can experience, but in an attorney’s office or before a Judge, it all comes down to dollars and cents —your hard-earned dollars and cents.

With dollar signs in mind, if the idea of a divorce is yours, keep the idea to yourself, at least for awhile. Except to give you a momentary rush of relief, talking with your spouse about your resolution wouldn’t do much good anyway. If you and your spouse had such great communication, the odds are you wouldn’t be talking or even thinking about a divorce.

PLAN AHEAD