When you hire a divorce lawyer in San Diego, you have the right to expect certain things from them. Your lawyer should be providing you with the legal support you need to get through your divorce as quickly and smoothly as possible. Let’s consider some of the things your lawyer should be doing for you and what you can expect from a good divorce attorney.
From a Divorce Lawyer in San Diego: What Legal Support Can You Expect?
Setting Legal Expectations
Divorce is difficult, there is no question, and it’s common for couples to seek a divorce because one party has injured the other in some way. While this injury might not be physical abuse or even emotional abuse, neglect, adultery, and other bad behavior can cause a lot of hurt, and emotions will run high. If you are the spouse who has been hurt, it’s natural to believe that the law will essentially be on your side.
One of the first and most important things that your lawyer will do for you is help you to understand exactly what the law says and how it will apply to your case, so that you can set your goals and manage your expectations accordingly. Unfortunately, except in the case of extremely egregious bad behavior, the way the court deals with the divorce and the allocation of marital property won’t have much to do with who hurt whom.
Even if neither party is at fault, many people have an understanding of how divorce works that is based on old information (maybe the experience of a parent or grandparent long ago), TV or movie tropes about divorce, or even an understanding of how divorced works in other states that may not apply here in California. Your lawyer will help here, too, so that you can start making plans for your future that are smart and feasible.
Meeting All Deadlines and Legal Requirements
California has state laws and regulations to govern how divorce goes, and the local family courts have their preferred ways of doing things as well as set deadlines and requirements. One of the things that your divorce lawyer in San Diego will do for you is to help you follow all of these rules and regulations of the San Diego family law courts and do so on time.
If you fail to meet a deadline, or what you provide to the court isn’t in line with what the court requires, not only can this delay and damage your case, but it can also make you look bad in the eyes of the court. If you’re fighting for child custody or dealing with a particularly contentious divorce, it’s important that you always put your best foot forward before the court.
Approaching Negotiations Objectively
Divorce is very difficult to approach objectively, and one of the very best reasons to have a lawyer is so that you have someone who can be an objective third-party who is still on your side. You want someone with enough emotional distance to present your case effectively to the court, negotiate well with your soon-to-be ex spouse and his or her lawyer, and who will fight for you: but in a reasoned and measured way that makes you look good and makes the best possible case on your behalf.
Your lawyer will also provide you with advice you can trust. It will be advice that is based entirely on your best interests but which is also free of the emotional concerns that may make it hard for you to make good decisions.
Fighting for Your Rights
We all hope that we won’t get divorced. If we do get divorced, our next hope is certainly that everything will go smoothly and that we and our spouse can part ways amicably. Unfortunately, this often doesn’t happen, and if your spouse is treating you poorly, you need someone to fight for your legal rights. The courts will try to make a fair division of marital property, for example, but what if your spouse is hiding property for themselves? Do you know how to find it or how to prove that they are doing so? Your lawyer will know where to look and how to fight to ensure that everything gets considered.
The courts will also strive to do what’s in the best interest of the child when it comes to child custody decisions. But what if your spouse starts making up stories about you or cleans up their own act on the outside in order to get custody, when you know that their real behavior hasn’t changed? How do you prove to the court what’s really going on? Your lawyer is on your side in this situation, fighting for you.
But let’s say you’re not in a contentious divorce at all and you and your spouse agree on division of property, how to divide up responsibility for your children, etc. Are you still aware of all of your rights under the law? Almost certainly not, as family law is complicated and changes can happen at any time. Your lawyer will be aware of everything that you need to consider and will make sure that nothing gets missed that could benefit you.
Helping You Craft Agreements
Unless there are some serious issues of domestic abuse or violence, in most ordinary divorce cases the court prefers that the parents come to an agreement over things like child custody, visitation schedules, child support payments, etc. The court always reserves the right to reject an agreement or to tweak it, but it likes to see parents working together on their child’s behalf and prioritizing their child over their own needs and preferences.
The hard part is crafting agreements that the court will agree are in the best interests of the child, so that you and your ex-spouse stay in control. If an agreement is not acceptable to the court, it may impose its will in a way that neither of you will like. A skilled lawyer knows what the court is looking for and what kind of language appeals to them can help you make agreements that the court will approve of.
Getting Access to Experts
Especially in divorces among couples with high net worth or complicated assets, experts may be needed to help you figure your property division, the potential future value of certain assets, or how to properly value a business. You might need everyone from a forensic accountant to a business appraiser or an investment analyst, and a good lawyer will have a network of such professionals to draw upon to ensure that your divorce is done right and that all aspects are managed professionally.
You might even need an expert to testify on your behalf or against a spouse in a custody battle, so child psychologists or therapists can also be very helpful. Whatever you need, a good divorce lawyer should be able to provide it.
Divorce requires a lot of legal support, and it’s never wise to go through a divorce without the help of a divorce attorney with lots of experience in the local family law courts. In the San Diego area, you’ll find that support at the Law Office Of Kevin Lemieux, AP. Contact our team now in San Diego or call us today at 619-488-6767 for help.
