The Advantages of Hiring a Female Family Law Attorney
The potential for receiving a different perspective and a unique skill set may be present when you choose a female family law attorney. Family law cases are often marked by an emotional component that is as important to the outcome of your case as the factual issues. To properly deal with this often delicate balance, female family lawyers bring a unique perspective that cannot be replicated.
This perspective allows them to make more accurate assessments of your case based upon all of the relevant factors, both emotional and factual. While this perspective is particularly useful to correctly triage the case, its real power is unleashed in the negotiation of a resolution to your case. Alone a lawyer’s legal acumen is often not sufficient to negotiate a successful resolution to a great majority of family law cases .
The ability to recognize and redress emotionally charged issues while maintaining focus on the client’s goals, both short-term and long-range, is a skill that often only comes with experience and having the ability to see things from very different viewpoints. While male attorneys are capable of negotiating resolutions, a female attorney is more likely to understand and explain how the issues, and the parties’ emotions, will affect the case now and in the future.
Finally, women often approach negotiation from a different place than men. There are many reasons for this, including the way genders are socialized. Studies consistently show that women approach negotiation with particular emphasis on relationship and concept. Women lawyers who have developed their skills make the use of these forces an integral part of their practice.
Services Provided by a Female Family Law Attorney
In general, female family lawyers provide a wide range of family law services that can be categorized into three primary practice areas:
Divorce Proceedings
Divorce is one of the most common family law services that a female family law attorney will offer. During a typical divorce proceeding, the services of a family lawyer will be utilized when spouses choose to either litigate or agree to the terms of their divorce. If the decision has been made to litigate, a family law attorney will have to take the lead role in the divorce during court appearances.
If spouses agree to settle their divorce, the attorney will draft any necessary divorce settlements and related documents. They will make sure that all requirements of the settlement are met and facilitate the proceedings until the divorce is finalized.
Child Custody Cases
Custody cases can be complicated, but not when spouses agree to the terms of their child custody arrangement. If both parents are amicable, the services of a family law attorney will be utilized when filing for custody rights and drafting basic parenting plans. However, custody cases are where family law lawyers are most utilized when parents are not on amicable terms. In the event of a custody dispute, a family law attorney will typically have the lead role during court appearances and settlement negotiations of the custody terms.
Domestic Violence Protection
Most family law attorneys are skilled in protecting at-risk women and children from violence by filing for protective orders. Depending on the legal issues involved, the family law attorney may also represent these clients to ensure their safety.
Qualifications and Experience You Should Consider
When seeking a trusted advisor for your family law matters, you want to consider several factors when selecting a female family law attorney. Overall experience and concentration in family law are paramount, but you also want to consider where that attorney has gotten her legal training. Has she simply graduated from law school, or has she pursued additional education and training? Has she worked for a judge, or had other practical training? Such education and training beyond normal law school classes are often given as indicators of more focused legal training.
You will also want to consider her actual work experience in family law, which can be seen in the number of years she has practiced, the number of trials she has handled, and the number of cases she has handled at any level, whether out-of-court, at the trial court level or on appeal. Again, there can be many different levels of experience within that realm, so you will want to know what other attorneys or judges might think of her abilities. Typically, an experienced family law attorney has handled hundreds of cases in her career, with many of those leading to trial hearing and settlement conferences, and some to actual trial. She will have dealt with motions for emergency relief, preliminary support and custody issues, post-divorce enforcement and modification proceedings, as well as appellate issues. Her breadth of experience must be balanced with depth and success in actual courtroom litigation, as well. Many clients are surprised at how lucky they have been to find an attorney with such a high ratio of courtroom experience compared to out-of-court settlement experience, but even more important is the percentage of her cases that are ultimately settled at any level, from initial conference all the way through matrimonial litigation, as well as the percentage of successful results (and explained unsuccessful results) in her trials.
If your case involves child abuse allegations, you will want an attorney who has this specialized experience and expertise. Likewise, if your divorce includes a Guardian ad Litem, someone appointed by a judge to represent the interests of a child, you will want an attorney with experience dealing with that important professional during the case and on appeal. Many female family law attorneys believe that working with Guardian ad Litems is one of the most rewarding aspects of their practice, along with working with children and preventing domestic violence.
Lest you believe that you are relegated to selecting a female attorney for your family law matters, San Francisco attorney Kristin Nichols has expressed the same common sense advice concerning male attorneys and family law matters that one would expect from female attorneys, as reported on the Findlaw website: "Choose an attorney you feel comfortable with and confident in," advises Nichols. "Choose a family law attorney, not a criminal law attorney, who is credentialed, respected, and highly experienced. Don’t choose an attorney because of gimmicks or because his or her Web site is particularly attractive. Choose that confident attorney who was able to answer most of your questions even before your first meeting."
Locating a Nearby Female Family Law Attorney
There are a number of ways to find a female attorney in your area specializing in family law. Firm websites, bar association member directories and lawyer social media sites are good resources for locating members of the fairer sex and what they do for a living. If you get a recommendation or referral from a satisfied relative or friend, always be sure to visit their website or reach out to them on social media before calling or setting up an appointment to see for yourself what they are all about . We are all human and sometimes the people who refer us are misguided and may miss the mark slightly on their recommendations. That is why it is so important to do your own investigation of the person or firm to which you are being referred to ensure that your needs are what they do and that this person or firm will be a pleasure for you to work with, not a pain in your you know what. It is worth your time to do your homework and you will be grateful you did in the end…as will they.
What to Expect During Your Consultation
When meeting with a female family law attorney for the first time, you want to ensure that you make the most out of your initial consultation with her. Most first consultations last approximately 30 minutes to an hour, however, if you are well prepared, this time may be longer and more productive. You most likely have been thinking about filing for divorce for some time, even if you have only in the back of your mind. Have a list of questions ready for your attorney to answer. These questions should include: You should also have copies of certain documents ready to be reviewed by your attorney, including, but not limited to: Anything else you can think of that may be helpful to your attorney in order to get his or her best representation at that time, you should have readily available.
Understanding Fees and Costs
Selecting representation based on cost alone is a dangerous proposition. Nevertheless, you cannot afford to ignore cost entirely. Most commonly, family law attorneys either charge by the hour or charge a flat fee. In hourly cases, you will get a bill every month that describes in detail how many hours the attorney or paralegal spent working on your case during the prior month, the tasks they completed and the amount you owe. Flat fees typically cover very specific services like uncontested divorce , adoptions or answering a motion. In these types of cases, you will probably get a detailed list of services that your flat fee covers. As you consider the financial aspects of a prospective lawyer, it is important to look at the overall value. Does the fee structure make sense for your case? How responsive has the attorney been to your needs? Are you ready and willing to commit to that candidate?