People, don't fool yourselves. Some litigation doesn't require the emotional toll
as much as others do. Money issues are bad, and custody is much worse. IN fact
custody is probably the worst hands down.
The real question is, would you want to hire an attorney to lose your case?
Most people love to say that "family law" means there are no winners.
Attorney herein is not your run of the mill attorney...some things that other attorneys
think are critical to practicing law, really aren't all that critical.
Well, maybe the people saying that, that there are "no winners" don't win any cases,
or feel that families all lose everything, or something different.
Because there is no pat set of facts that create
winning, it's obvious that if someone needs child support and gets the order, it's a win
because they got what they requested? If they got nothing, they certainly can't say
they won, in our opinion.
Look at this, which we saw online: ..."clients will want to find in an attorney, someone who is competent, communicative and diligent versus seeking out a win loss record..a win loss record is rarely a good measure in divorce and family law...."
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For some attorneys, maybe claiming a win loss record may not be a good measure of anything, but after MANY years of doing these cases, attorney herein believes that if a client desires an outcome, and attorney gets that outcome, that is a win for the client.
If the attorney just wants to settle a case, that is an outcome, possibly it could be acceptable to both sides if each had to give up something, then it's a compromise. Whether a compromise is a loss or win is usually up to the circumstances-- if a client had to really lose a lot in order to get the compromise, but overall in the long run it would be helpful down the road, that might be sort of a win over the long haul.
But telling people that a win loss record is not a good measure of a family law attorney is not necessarily correct, since any family law attorney that consistently loses cases is likely not doing something correctly. Family law is much more difficult than it appears, and the emotional aspects alone make most attorneys run, run, run--away!! When compounded by clients with high anxiety and medical or mental issues, the case becomes at least twice as difficult--- if not more.....
The high emotional toll on the parties and even the attorneys means that certain attorneys could never, and would never, never, ever want to be in family law.
It is a fact that it was due to family law related cases, where the emotions tend to run higher
than even in criminal cases-- that California started using weapon scanning to enter courthouses. We know of several family law attorneys that were shot by the losing spouses in family law cases?
The high emotional toll on the parties and even the attorneys means that certain attorneys could never, and would never, never, ever want to be in family law.
It is a fact that it was due to family law related cases, where the emotions tend to run higher
than even in criminal cases-- that California started using weapon scanning to enter courthouses. We know of several family law attorneys that were shot by the losing spouses in family law cases?
If clients want to win their case, it should at least be for the right reasons. Calling the right reasons is half the battle, yet some attorneys simply churn out the work to get paid, which is their reason, not necessarily the client's .. ..that's a huge difference.
So attorney herein has no problems in stating that attorney is hired to win whatever the client wants, as long as attorney believes that under the law, that outcome is suitable.
Attorney has had cases where the outcome is NOT suitable nor equitable, BUT the client
wants to take that choice. A bad decision, a bad choice, or a bad moment (lapse of reason) in
family law can cause clients to ignore the attorney and make poor choices. When I see a client
willing to cut their throat to end the case, I do not allow it because I know it will haunt the
client forever.
These are serious mistakes, and instead, I will have the client fire me and sign
the substitution of attorney. I will take no part in a bad, horrible decision made due to mental
anguish or the ability to do harm to him or herself.
For example: client made $25k/year and
spouse made $80k/year. The $80k spouse had spent over 100k on credit cards the other spouse
did not even know existed, putting them into bankruptcy. The family was forcing the $27k
person to take a walk-away deal with almost nothing. Attorney herein refused to do it, and would
not sign anything of the sort, regardless. They were FAR from being poor.
In another case, the wife wanted the divorce judgment BEFORE the bankruptcy rules had changed. At that time, the bankruptcy rules were such that if a spouse got divorced, the community debt would
fall to the non filing spouse (post separation) and the filing spouse would have no debt.
That law had not been changed and I repeatedly explained to the client that if she entered the judgment, she would then end up with all of the community debt (that the husband had racked up) and with her
student debt of $70k she would end up being a bankruptcy candidate.
She claimed she did not care, but as the judgment triggers the law, she should have cared. I told her to fire me and get another attorney so she wouldn't have to be charged for me to make a motion to get out of the case. Instead, she complained to the bar that I wouldn't file the judgment? This is how errant clients can become. If her ex filed the bankruptcy and the law hadn't changed, then she inherited the debt. Case results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each case. Case results do not guarantee or predict a similar result.
