The attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan have seen just about everything in our time practicing law on behalf of Southeast Texans. Every day we are confronted with situations and circumstances ranging from the rewarding to the stressful to the downright bizarre. Our attorneys jump headfirst into situations on behalf of our clients and don’t look back. We are fighters, and we are prepared to do what it takes, within the confines of the law, to represent our clients with diligence. With that said, some of the more interesting circumstances have to do with questions that we receive from potential clients.
You can learn a lot about a person in a free of charged legal consultation. That is what our law office has provided the community with for as long as we’ve been open. If you have a question about a family last situation, are seeking representation in a family loss scenario, or need someone to talk to about a legal matter involving family law. There are a no better group of attorneys in Southeast Texas to turn to than our lawyers. We are proud of our experience and our successes. Most of all, we are proud of our clients and how they battle every day in tough circumstances despite all obstacles.
For those of you reading this blog post that has never been involved in a family law case, you may think some of the words that I am choosing to use in this blog post are exaggerations. There’s no way; you may be thinking that this lawyer is serious about these legal cases being battles or intense or anything like that. I can tell you that while family law cases are not military exercises, they can be an intense experience for participating. This includes both the parties involved, their children, families, and even the attorneys. Family law is not for the faint of heart.
When you are beginning to work with an attorney, one of the best questions you can ask them is how many trials they have been to either on the divorce or child custody sign period; from there, you should be quiet and allow the attorney to talk. If that attorney cannot provide you with a specific number or at least a close approximation, you should move on. The OR attorney should be prepared to help you negotiate through your family law case and be prepared when it comes to heading to court. The simple truth is that your case is very likely to settle before you ever see the inside of a courtroom. However, you need to be prepared if negotiation falters, then your only recourse is the courtroom.
It is a strange dichotomy that family law attorneys experience. On the one hand, the vast majority of family law cases settled. Most of the time, these cases will settle in mediation, where both parties work with an experienced mediator to hammer out agreements on any outstanding issues in their case. By doing so, they can avoid the uncertain cost and time commitments of a trial. I would say upwards of 80% of child custody and divorce cases that we work on in our office settle and never require us to see a courtroom in a trial setting.
With that said, you will likely not find any group of attorneys who spend more time in court than do family attorneys. Even though trial settings are not common in family law cases, the reality is that it is common to have hearing dates during a family law matter. These hearing dates could be related to temporary orders hearing, such as discovery, the violation of a temporary order, or anything in between. These are relatively small matters or can be, but they still require courtroom intervention. As a result, you may still end up having a court appearance or two before your case is over with. However, these sort of court appearances or much simpler, less costly in terms of dollars, and less time-consuming than at trial is.
So even though the likelihood of a court date in your family lock case is decent, keep in mind that those court dates are usually over relatively minor situations. The idea that you could go through a trial in your divorce or child custody case is a possibility, but it is far from a likelihood. Compare this to popular notions of what a family law case may be, and you may end up being surprised at the result of your case.
The list brings me to an important topic that you certainly need to consider before a new or family law case beginning. Specifically, it would help if you thought about whether or not you will be hiring an attorney for your family law case. This is probably the essential question that you will ask yourself throughout the entirety of your case. The decision whether or not to hire an attorney will have long-ranging and far-reaching impacts on your case and can even determine the level of success that you experience. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that the future of your finances and your immediate future relationship with your children depends upon the quality of representation you receive in a divorce or child custody case.
In today’s blog post from the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, I will share with you my thoughts on when you need to consider hiring an attorney for your case, how you should consider doing so, and who could fill that role. No one attorney is best for everyone. Rather, some attorneys end up working better with some clients and vice versa. Your job is to learn as much as you can about the process, interview as many attorneys as you’d like, and then make a decision for yourself. Hopefully, at the end of that process, you will have determined who is right for you and your family, and you are confident in the decision-making process you went through.
Do you need an attorney for your family law case?
This is the important question that you need to ask yourself. My general rule of thumb that I like to share with people is that you should certainly consider hiring an attorney if your family law case involves children. This means any divorce with children and any child custody case of any sort should result in you hiring an attorney. The process by which you hired that lawyer is up to you. However, not having a lawyer in a child custody situation is a recipe for disaster. You would not want to risk your short-term and long-term relationship with your children simply because you do not want to deal with an attorney or do not want to deal with hiring an attorney.
The other situation where you certainly should consider hiring an attorney is in a divorce case where a great deal of property is at stake. In these types of cases, there are two circumstances at play. The first is the hard work you put into earning a living for yourself and developing an estate plan for your family. You do not want to put yourself in a position where you risk losing all of that simply because you did not want to hire an attorney. Imagine a life’s worth of work, savings, investing, and responsibility down the tubes for you personally only because you were dead set against hiring a lawyer.
The other part of a property and assets situation that you need to consider is that Community property laws govern the system by which marital property is divided into Texas divorce. Community property laws are at the same time fairly straightforward but also complex. You must be able to negotiate your way through a division of your marital property but understand how separate property, Community property, and all of your states function together. Not only this, there are sometimes complicated matters of determining what property belongs in what category and learning how to back up your assertions with evidence.
You cannot learn at the last minute or even through diligent study in a library. Rather, there is no substitute for the experience that your attorney can help you guys with in terms of learning how to handle a case, negotiate, and understand how Community property law in case precedent makes a difference in a divorce. That’s not even to go through things like creating an inventory and appraisement of your property at the beginning of a case. The bottom line is that just as you should not risk losing your relationship with your children because you don’t want to hire a lawyer, you should also not risk losing your property for the same reason.
Sometimes you may believe that an attorney, generally speaking, is not someone you want to become involved with because the past experiences or general misgivings. In many cases, an attorney may be someone you have had our experiences worked on other occasions sour due to the experience of hiring a lawyer in the future. Whatever circumstance you find yourself in, I would ask you to consider the risk of not having a lawyer in your current case. There are circumstances in life in which we can do it ourselves and not hire professionals. However, would you consider pulling your teeth? What about changing a spark plug on your car? I’m going to bet you work with experienced professionals in paper forms activities. Second I would recommend working with experienced family law churning when dealing with difficult circumstances relating to the world of divorce or child custody.
How to hire a family law attorney?
Once you determine that you do need to have an attorney in your family law case, the next question is to ask yourself is how you should go about hiring a lawyer. To me, this step involves two smaller steps. The first is finding returning second is hiring the lawyer. Finding an attorney is not so difficult. The Internet, television, and advertising around the area are full of information or turning. However, see you find an attorney you are interested in hiring, you must then decide how to learn more about her. To me, this is best done through a consultation with the attorney. Many attorneys, such as those with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan, offer free of charge consultations throughout the week. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with a way to get to know the attorney to get a feel for hiring a lawyer.
You should use this opportunity 2 ask questions and then be patient while listening for an answer. Many times, the tendency is to want to tell the attorney every back or circumstances replace in one of these meetings. However, listening to the attorney and consultation is almost as important as the need for the attorney to listen to you.
For instance, the only way you’re going to be able to tell whether or not you trust the attorney, have a good feeling about them, or whether or not she has the experience necessary to represent you will be in one of these consultations. You will not learn much math about them if you spend most of your time; no one will hurt inconsequential information about your life. Rather, give the attorney basic information about your case and allow them to speak period from that interaction. You would be able to learn more about that Boyer and whether or not you believe they are competent sentence cases representing your family.
By all means, however. He should meet with the attorney in person. As much as the digital patient has assisted us during this pandemic, I would not use it as a touching doing something as important as hiring a lawyer. Internet rankings and earrings and flash videos on their website, caramel substitutes for booking a person in their eye and getting to know them. I think that personal touch can make a huge difference in helping you to learn whether or not that lawyer is the right person to represent you and your family. Once you have noticed, the connection is much better suited to decide what is clear to higher in your case.
Can a family member represent you in court?
Getting back to the question we asked in the title for today’s blog post, the answer is yes. You legally can have a relative, family friend, or even yourself be the primary representative in your case. However, having a family member who represents you who is not an attorney would not be too different from having an attorney. While you may trust this person slightly more, Dan is an attorney that does not do you very much good in the long run. We’ve already talked about how a specific knowledge of family law is critical in a family law case. The second part of that is we’ve already covered how meeting with an attorney in person can causing to be more comfortable hiring a lawyer, and let’s put you in a position where you are more likely to do so.
Finally, an attorney who has had their license suspended the State Bar of Texas or any disciplinary committee through the State Bar of Texas is not eligible to practice law in this state. I’m not sure that any of you out there would do this, but if you plan on hiring the lawyer whose license is suspended, you should certainly consider not doing so. You can go to the State Bar of Texas website and look online to determine the eligibility status of the attorney you are speaking to. Search for their name, and you will see their eligibility status on the website. Do not hire an attorney who is not currently licensed to practice law in Texas or is ineligible to do so because of a suspension or other punishment that has been handed down.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
You have any questions about the material presented in today’s blog post; please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free of charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and in the video. These consultations are a great way for you to learn more about the world of Texas family law and how your family circumstances may be impacted by the filing of a divorce or child custody case. I appreciate your interest in our law practice. We hope you will join us tomorrow as we continue to post relevant and interesting information about the world of Texas family law.