How to decide on a divorce lawyer

ow to choose a lawyer for your divorce

When you have a contested custody or divorce case it is an excellent idea to carefully consider which lawyer you want to represent you. First you should decide what it is you are looking for. Here are some questions that will assist you.

(1) What percentage of his or her practice is devoted to divorce law?
(2) How long has the lawyer been practicing?
(3) How good is his or her training and education?
(4) Is he or she a member of any relevant associations?
(5) How is the lawyer known in the community?

Practice

Knowing how much of a lawyer's time here she spends working on divorce issues will help you get a feel for how much experience he or she has with matters like yours. A lawyer whose practice is 100% devoted to family law issues, such as divorce and custody, will likely have much more expertise and familiarity with handling such cases than an lawyer whose practice is much more general in nature.

Experience

Experience is a valuable thing. The greater the lawyers experience in dealing with divorce cases the more you can expect to be charged. You don't always get what you pay for but that rule of thumb is probably more often true than false. Further, the more years of experience an lawyer has with divorce or custody cases, the more likely he or she has worked on a case similar to yours and can help you learn what you can likely expect and what the total costs will be.

Education

The fact that an lawyer graduated from a prestigious law school does not necessarily guarantee that he or she is more qualified and more experienced in the field of family law than an lawyer that has not graduated from a prestigious law school. The law school is however still something worth exploring because it may demonstrate how serious, dedicated, and committed the lawyer was to his or her education. It might also be helpful to know if the lawyer has any other relevant training, for example, in counseling or finance or other matters related to divorce issues. It will be up to you to balance the amount of education and experience your lawyer has with the extra cost that will be sure to go along with it.

Memberships

Typically a divorce lawyer will also belong to associations that deal with different aspects of family issues. Some of these groups are open to anyone who wishes to belong and others require members to meet some qualifications first. A lawyer that does not have any memberships to organizations in the field of divorce law can may give you cause to wonder about their interest and level of competence in that field.

Reputation

Is the lawyer you are thinking about known in the community as a "divorce lawyer"? Does he or she advertise in the Yellow Pages, the newspaper, or online as a divorce lawyer? What newspaper stories have referred to the lawyer's practice? This might actually be something you will want to research either online or at the library. Best of all, do you know anyone who has gone through a divorce and had dealings with this lawyer? Be careful though. It is rare for one to think highly of the lawyer who acted for his or her spouse.

Check the information about a lawyer in the provincial Bar Society website. Ultimately it comes down to your own preferences in your own judgment about whether your lawyer is a good choice and whether you have done enough homework to choose well.