Essential questions to ask your divorce lawyer
On April 5, 2019 by Joanne
Ending a marriage is generally an emotionally painful process that also contains complex legal process. At your first consultation, a knowledgeable Long Island Divorce Lawyer can summarize the vital aspects of family law, the process, and your primary options. During this meeting, you should also have the chance to talk the specifics of your conditions, explain what you are hoping to achieve, and ask questions that are the forefront of your mind. Most questions that appear at this stage revolve around child custody and financial problems. Here are the best 5 questions to ask your lawyer that should support you in the most relevant detail to make the legal aspects of your marriage dissolution more manageable.
What is your fee structure?
This should be the initial question you ask your divorce attorney. You will need to know whether a fixed fee will be charged or whether you will be charged a hourly rate for all the job performed on your case. Try and obtain a specific cost range if your case ends up going all the way to trail. Considering that some divorce cases can take years to resolves, it is amazing to know the long-term financial implications.
What are the legal process in my state?
Every state has its own special needs for how divorces must be filed. The amount of time that it will take from begin to finish varies amazingly depending on the circumstances of your condition, but your lawyer should be capable to provide you a approximate timeline and an overview of the right steps that will be taken throughout the filling procedure.
Can I ask for alimony?
Whether you are expecting to seek alimony for yourself or you think your partner may seek it from you, you will want to discover what the laws around the alimony are in your state. Some states make eligibility dependant on how long you were married, whether one partner stays home to raise the children, or whether one partner makes substantially more cash than the other. In any case, a professional attorney can guide you via the specific rules in your state.
How will child custody be determined?
If you have little kid, one of the most hard problems when a marriage ends is deciding who will have custody. If the parties cannot have the same opinion on their own, a judge will step in and make the plan based on accessible proof. It is vital to know what factors the judge will consider when making this critical decision, and a lawyer can counsel you on actually what to expect.
How will material asset be split?
Another vital and often-time wasting problem relates to finances and how material assets will be split. Most states have a method that will govern the split for mutually held assets. A divorce lawyer will have the skill to describe the legal framework for how assets are divided in your state and will describe how state property laws ultimately dictate each partner ownership rights.