Seven Don’ts and Do’s with your Family Law Attorney
Jeff J. Horn – Ocean County Family Lawyer
Retaining a family lawyer can be a difficult process. Once you find the family lawyer you want to work hard to keep a solid working relationship with your family lawyer. Do communicate effectively. Here are seven family lawyer don’ts and do’s to help you communicate effectively with your family law attorney.
One. Don’t email your family law attorney several times per day.
Do: The antidote to overwhelming your family law attorney is matching your questions and observations. Remember your formal lawyer has limited bandwidth. Get the most out of your family law interactions.
Two. Don’t shop for alternative answers to your questions within your family lawyer’s office.
Do: Sometimes, family law client will ask everyone in the office the same question. Most likely, this is a nervous reaction. By and large, family lawyer offices understand you are stressed. However, asking the receptionist, paralegal, associate attorney and partner attorney all the same question turns you into the pain in the neck client. Obviously, that is to be avoided.
Three. Don’t ramble your whole life story every time you talk to your family law attorney.
Do: Fortunately, your family there will want to know your story. It’s important to you and important to your lawyer. Most lawyers are good listeners. Hence, it is unnecessary for you to repeat your entire life story every time you speak.
Four. Don’t yell at the family lawyer staff.
Do: The buck stops with the lawyer. Oftentimes clients will vent on the staff of the family law attorney. Staff is on the front line. First, use healthy techniques like breathing, exercise and therapy to deal with family law emotions. Second, schedule a time to speak to the lawyer. Venting is permitted. Frequently, small mistakes or miscommunications are blown out of proportion – family law is stressful.
***Bonus Tip***
Seriously, simply breathing may be the trick to managing family law stress – check out this blog article
How to Manage Stress… – “Divorce and separation is one of the most stressful life events anyone can face. It’s a time of massive change, great uncertainty, and loss.”
Five. Don’t blame everything in your life on your family lawyer.
Do: Remember, your family lawyer is on your side. However, your family lawyer has a life just like you. On any given day, your lawyer is dealing with a sick child or parent, someone close has Covid 19 or they are dealing with an unexpected expense. Best practices means hard on the problem and easy on the people.
Six. Don’t expect your family lawyer to be available on a moment’s notice.
Do: Clearly, you want a busy and effective family lawyer. Unfortunately, that means your family lawyer has other clients. Likely, your family lawyer works on 40 or 50 cases at a time. Think about it, who would want a lawyer with no cases? One would have to question your judgment in hiring a lawyer who is exclusively available to you.
Seven. Don’t be intimidated by your family law attorney or the entire process.
Do: This don’t may seem illogical. By and large your family lawyer is there to simplify the family law process for you. Accordingly, ask your family lawyer to break things down in small bites for you. If you feel like your family law attorney throws excessive jargon at you to intimidate you, maybe time to switch lawyers. You always have the power to seek a second opinion.
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