Family Lawyer Scope of Work

The family lawyer is a professional individual who works within the law to help his client achieve their goals. The scope of this field is anything that is related to the relationships among families. This type of attorney is bound by the same rules of ethics as others when it comes to the clients' privacy and confidences. There is a code of ethics that each legal representative should uphold.

Professional Obligations

The professional obligations of this attorney include, but are not limited to, representing his or her client within the boundaries of the law and the contract or agreement between both parties, the assessment of the problem at hand and possible results and outcomes of this, uphold the privacy and confidentiality between the client and legal representative. Other inclusions are the compliance of the clients' wishes as long as they are legal, taking care of the person's interests within the boundaries of the case and the law and representing other cases or parties that may have conflicting interests with the current cases that he or she is handling. This means the attorney cannot represent anybody that may have something to do with the case of another client.

Responsibilities

The family lawyer is responsible for the production and editing of the paperwork that is involved in the various cases that may stem from this field. Although the legal representative has a number of staff who can type and produce the paperwork and documents involved, he or she should scan and peruse each one to be sure that all is in place and there are not possible issues in them. The usual cases in this filed concerns divorce and its possible connections. These connections might be child custody, division of assets and properties, prenuptial agreements, paternity suits and many others. More responsibilities include the actual legal representation in court and in meetings between both parties in order to reach an amicable agreement. These meetings for possible agreements are done in order to not let the situation escalate to a point where the case will be heard in court. The family lawyer always starts with meetings between parties to try and reach a settlement to avoid going to court. Once the case is in court, it is not as easy to reach an agreement or a settlement. The attorney will also be responsible in hiring experts to discover evidence and proof that is helpful for his or her client with regards to the client. This means hiring an investigator to seek out proof and evidence to help the case or to dispute the statements of the other party.

These are just an overview of the roles and responsibilities that a family lawyer should face up to when he or she is hired to handle a case. There are more detailed tasks and responsibilities that may be required from the legal representative but these may need to be discussed between the client and the attorney. Any agreement or contract between these two may be done in writing to prevent any misrepresentations or misunderstandings.