The selection of the right Contra Costa County divorce attorney to assist you with your divorce law matter is a critical decision to the successful completion of your divorce on the best possible terms and at a reasonable cost.
You want a divorce lawyer with considerable experience, and yet one who has the energy and enthusiasm for your case. Ideally you want a divorce attorney who loves what he/she does because that will be displayed in the quality of his/her work and will directly benefit you. You don’t want a divorce lawyer who is emotionally “burnt out” on divorce law or who is “too busy” to give your case the attention it deserves or to talk to you personally over the phone for your initial consultation.
In terms of experience, legal perspective and personal energy, the ideal divorce attorney is probably between 50 and 65 years old. Younger than that in the complex field of divorce law likely means inadequate experience. It takes many years experience as a lawyer to handle divorce law cases efficiently and accomplish the client’s best interests at a reasonable cost. Older than that may suggest a lack of energy and enthusiasm–he/she may be more focused on retirement.
You should expect your initial phone consultation to be free. As discussed below, you need to interview your divorce lawyer personally over the phone during this free initial consultation before you even schedule an appointment to meet with the attorney. You want to feel comfortable about your divorce lawyer. There should be good chemistry between the two of you. You want to know that he/she will return your calls promptly now and in the future.
Cost is also an important consideration, and working to keep your divorce costs down should be a high priority to your divorce attorney as well. He/she should be willing to discuss your divorce budget with you and help you determine whether you are being realistic in your divorce cost expectations. Depending on your spouse, divorces can be very expensive or relatively inexpensive.
Your divorce lawyer should be able to explain to you how retainers work and what his/her hourly rate is. The amount of his/her initial retainer will vary depending on the nature of your case. (Note that a retainer is not a maximum cost of your divorce–depending on how cooperative your spouse is and the complexity of your divorce, your divorce may cost less than the retainer (resulting in a refund to you at the end of your case), or your divorce may cost much more than your retainer (requiring that you pay more money as your divorce progresses to restore the credit balance to your retainer account).
Your divorce attorney should be able to explain these matters to you and advise you on alternatives to help hold down the costs of your divorce. These alternatives include limited scope representation (i.e., an “unbundled” divorce where he/she helps you do some of your own work on your divorce), mediation and collaborative law. This discussion of alternatives may need to wait until after your initial free phone consultation, so that you can discuss these matters face-to-face with your divorce lawyer.
Finally, but of equal importance, your divorce lawyer should be sensitive to your emotional needs and to those of your children.
Divorce is a highly stressful event, but the right divorce attorney can make it much less so. Your divorce lawyer should listen carefully to you and discuss emotional issues with you as they arise. He/she should be able to refer you and/or your children to good therapists if necessary. He/she should look for ways, without compromising your legal interests, to de-escalate tensions with your spouse and focus on negotiation instead of litigation (except as a last resort). This is always in your best interests and in the best interests of your children.
Here are some important tips—secrets of the divorce law profession, so to speak– that you should know about in selecting your divorce attorney:
A. To select a divorce attorney for Contra Costa County who will achieve the best possible outcome for you at the lowest reasonable price, you should look for a lawyer or law firm that both:
(i) limits its practice to family law exclusively , and
(ii) limits its practice to the courts of Contra Costa County exclusively.
The Law Offices of Duane Henry meets both criteria.
Divorce law is extremely complex in California, and family law judges have a great deal of discretion in their rulings. Rulings and judicial preferences and leanings vary dramatically from county to county and from judge to judge. You want an attorney who is up-to-the minute in knowledge and experience both in divorce law and with the family law judges of Contra Costa County.
B. When you phone the divorce attorney’s office, you should reasonably expect to talk either directly to the attorney OR to leave a message on his/her voicemail. Voicemail is not a bad thing in this case, although immediate direct contact is always gratifying to the prospective client. Be willing to leave a voicemail for the divorce attorney as the results may be worth the wait.
If, instead, your call is answered by an assistant, you are being “screened” and your call most likely will not be productive. You deserve to talk to the divorce attorney live on the phone before you schedule an appointment. That way you can be the one doing the screening, not the attorney’s assistant. As a result, you will know from your phone conversation with the divorce attorney whether you want to meet with him/her or contact another divorce lawyer. Do not settle for a phone call with an assistant. If you reach someone other than the attorney (personally or by voicemail), hang up and call another divorce lawyer.
It is not unreasonable to reach voicemail because the attorney may be in court or with another client. (You would not want him/her taking a potential client’s call if he/she were meeting with you.) However, in the case of voicemail, you should expect that your call will be returned by the divorce attorney promptly (the same day or at least within 24 hours) and not by an assistant, secretary or a screener.
If you leave a voicemail, make sure that you say your name and phone number clearly and repeat them twice. You can also briefly describe your problem, but do that at the end of your message so that your phone number is not cut off. (Make sure your telephone does not have “Privacy Manager” or a similar phone company feature that will make it difficult for the attorney to return your call from his/her phone which may have Caller ID blocked.)
If you talk directly to the attorney, you will get actual information and insight into your problem that will help you. And you will get to know quickly whether you like the attorney. You are much better served at a more reasonable cost to speak directly to the attorney from your very first call and every time thereafter. If you find yourself conveying messages through another person, your time and money is being wasted, overhead is unnecessarily high and the risk of miscommunication and a less desirable outcome is greatly increased.
At the Law Offices of Duane Henry, you will speak only with an attorney when you call.
C. Contact only divorce attorneys that offer free initial consultations. The purpose of the initial consultation is to give you some initial legal thoughts about your case, to get the lawyer thinking about your case and to give both you and the lawyer an opportunity to gauge whether you would work well together. If a lawyer is confident in himself/herself, the lawyer should not require the client to pay for that initial consultation, which can often take place on the phone. The Law Offices of Duane Henry always offers free initial consultations and often over the phone to save you the time and expense of a commute.
D. Work only with divorce attorneys that will offer you evening and weekend appointments to accommodate your work schedule if that would be helpful to you. Most good divorce lawyers who are enthusiastic about law (an important selection criteria for you) and who are client focused (another important selection criteria) want to make it as easy as possible for you to work with them. They will try to meet your needs for evening and weekend appoints. The Law Offices of Duane Henry offers evening and weekend appointments as needed by clients. The Law Offices of Duane Henry also offers telephone consultations on evenings and weekends as needed to serve its clients.
E. Modern family lawyers save their clients money and provide better service by using word processing and forms programs themselves and eliminating the overhead and wasted time involved in employing office staff to distance themselves from their clients. The modern divorce attorney uses technology to create his/her documents and “eliminates the middleman” where drafts go to a typist, back to the attorney for revision and back to the typist again, etc. And this is before the client even sees the document. This “document volleyball” all involves overhead cost and additional attorney time at your expense. The Law Offices of Duane Henry uses the best and most modern applicable approaches to your divorce to save you the maximum money and achieve the best possible result.
F. Do not look for a so-called “tough,” “mean” or “aggressive” attorney. Do not use your divorce as a means to get even with your spouse and do not look for a divorce attorney who will “take your spouse to the cleaners.”
Family law is designed to encourage and reward the parties and their attorneys who take reasonable positions in good faith. Family law is designed to punish severely those clients and attorneys who do not take reasonable positions and who are not willing to negotiate in good faith. Section 271 and other sections of the Family Code and other California codes provide for the imposition of severe monetary sanctions against those clients who take unreasonably aggressive positions in connection with their divorces.
In one famous California case, for example, one spouse won the California Lottery, and her winnings were taken entirely away from her by the Courts and given to the other spouse to punish her bad behavior. Sanctions under California law may include ruling in favor of one spouse on an important issue without even hearing evidence.
The Law Offices of Duane Henry recognizes that reasonable negotiations in good faith will usually produce the best results for its clients and resorts to litigation only where the other spouse is being unreasonable in light of the law.
The Law Offices of Duane Henry serves divorce and family law clients and Divorce Mediation Services clients in all of Contra Costa County, including Alamo, Antioch, Baypoint, Blackhawk, Brentwood, Clayton, Concord, Crockett, Danville, Diablo, Discovery Bay, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Hercules, Lafayette, Martinez, Moraga, Oakley, Orinda, Pleasant Hill, Pittsburg, Richmond, Rossmoor, San Pablo, San Ramon, and Walnut Creek
If you have any questions, please call the Law Offices of Duane Henry at 925-825-5010.
