CONDENSE FACTS WHEN MEETING WITH A MATRIMONIAL ATTORNEY

This is part of my series on What To Do When You First Need To See A Matrimonial Attorney The next point would be to condense your facts and not be too long-winded when coming to interview a prospective attorney. You must keep in mind that matrimonial attorneys are generally inundated with paperwork daily and deal with very sensitive, emotional people all day long. They need to cut to the chase of your matter and focus on how to protect your interests in the most fair and reasonable way possible. Being too long-winded by detailing unimportant facts can distract the attorney and have him or her lose focus on your actual needs and the results that you are ultimately seeking for your case. It is always important to think beforehand of the pertinent facts surrounding your case, the reasons why your marriage broke down (which will ultimately lead to the drafting of a Complaint for divorce or Answer and Counterclaim) and what you ultimately want for the outcome of your case. For instance, some clients come to an interview stating that they would like to get back at their spouse and prolong the litigation as long as possible. Other clients would like their case over with as soon as possible and look toward an amicable resolution of the issues instead of being overly litigious and making the case bigger than it is. You need to feel in your heart of hearts how you would like the case to proceed and look at the hard facts and law presented to you by your prospective attorney. To some degree, you must fairly assess how you expect your spouse to proceed in this matter as well. That means whether or not they intend to play hard ball with you, conceal or divert assets and create a hardship over the children and their related needs. If, on the other hand, you can anticipate a degree of responsiveness on these matters, the case can unfold in a much more straightforward manner. Your attorney needs to know about these matters as well.