Understanding What’s at Stake
Why bring any of this up? It’s to call attention to what you’re really doing when you choose an attorney to represent you in a divorce or custody dispute. You’re trusting someone to diffuse a highly charged situation without backing down. It’s not a hostage negotiation, but it does bear a certain resemblance, so let’s look at what qualities a hostage negotiator ought to have. Here are some of the recurring answers you’ll find if you do a bit of digging:
Active listening skills - the same skill that allows to serve our clients as individuals allows us to interact with opponents in a meaningful way.
Genuine and compassionate demeanor - this is something your opponent needs to see from your attorney from day one. They’ve likely seen too many sides of you to react to your compassion with anything but distrust, but the attorney who represents you can be calm without seeming to behave out of character.
Patience - making the other party feel hurried empowers them to exercise control over you by delaying proceedings or dragging out negotiations. As much as you’d probably like to get to the end, it’s better to exhibit indifference when it comes to the pace of progress.
So many of the lawyers I know, regardless of the breadth of their practice, will not touch family law cases. They’d sooner represent someone accused of a truly heinous act than a regular person going through a divorce or custodial dispute. When you are deciding who should represent you in your own family law matter, it’s helpful to consider why so many attorneys steer clear of these cases.
Beyond the fact that the outcomes typically range from bittersweet at best to gut-wrenching at worst, family law cases present lawyers with a challenge they are unlikely to face in any other practice area: an unpredictable and often unreasonable opponent. In criminal law, a prosecutor may seem ruthless, but there is no underlying client compounding the difficulty just to spite the defendant. In personal injury cases, the insurance company isn’t friendly, but their objective is always the same, so the goalposts don’t get arbitrarily moved to prolong the dispute.
What do family law services cost?
For simple, amicable divorce actions, the hourly rate is $250. For more contentious situations, such as those involving custodial disputes, the hourly rate is $325. During the initial consultation, we will make a determination as to which classification is appropriate based on our discussion.