What Your Divorce Lawyer Would Like to Know

Depending on the jurisdiction that you are in, it is likely that there are all sorts of different options that a divorce lawyer can pursue in ending a marriage.  It can be simple and uncontested, or it can be more complicated where the spouses have contested issues regarding their children, support, and property.  The more uncontested and straightforward the legal issues are, the less the divorce lawyer needs to know. However, deeply contested issues require an enormous amount of in depth knowledge by the attorney.  The parties, however, are the ones with the most information, and so the challenge is communicating this information to their legal representative.

First, a divorce lawyer will probably need to know very broad information about your marriage and then later much more detail.  Often, the attorney inquires as to why the spouses are seeking to end their marriage and whether counseling might be a better alternative.  After the attorney has determined that the spouse desires to legally split from the other spouse, the attorney will generally seek to learn more about the family, such as how many children there are of the marriage, what property the two spouses have, and what are the contested issues between the two.

After this, the divorce lawyer will likely need to know what it is that you would like legally from your spouse. This includes such things as what type of custody arrangement the two of you have been exercising, and whether this arrangement is likely in the best interests of the children. Part of this will probably include whether either of the spouses have ever been accused of domestic violence (and if there was, the facts and circumstances). This questioning could also include things such as what negative things the other spouse may say about you or you about the other spouse.

In order to complete the discovery questions, the divorce lawyer will likely have to ask you a number of detailed questions regarding your family’s financial situation.  Here, again, the attorney will probably want to know what items you what like the court to grant to you, their approximate value, and how it would be possible to come to some sort of even split with the property.

Using the above information as a starting point, the attorney should likely have enough information to formulate a legal strategy with the client.  The client’s input here is crucial, as this is some of the most valuable time that a client has with their attorney because it allows the two to formulate a strategy, based on the client’s goals, how they will go about doing it, and for the attorney to give feedback on what he or she thinks are the chances of achieving the clients goals.  In other words, before a case becomes too contested, it is possible for the attorney and client to think without immediate distractions about how it is that the client’s interests will be best represented.

Will Beaumont is an attorney in New Orleans.  This article is strictly informational and not legal advice.