Searching for a California Divorce Lawyer Just Got Easier

This is How You Search and Find a California Divorce Lawyer

When searching for a divorce lawyer, it is normal to feel that stress and anxiety before you call, during the call, and even after you hire an attorney.

Panic takes these emotions to another level. If you are about to start a California divorce and you're panicked about what is happening and what may happen, logic may shut down, and you may make very poor decisions.

In our experience, panic comes from a fear of the unknown. Your anxiety level builds up to an unhealthy level because your questions are left unanswered. Worse yet, you get contradictory advice, especially from people with no business giving advice.

What are some of these questions that build up to a panic when searching for divorce lawyers?

Child custody

If you have children, you will have questions about California's child custody laws. You want to know how things work in California and how a family court determines child custody consistent with the children's best interest.

You will also want to know what parenting schedule the court may order and whether that may be sole physical custody, primary custody, or a 50/50 custody schedule. If one parent already has custody of a child before there is even a court order, both parents usually want to know whether the parent who has custody has to allow visitation until there is a court order.

Child and spousal support

If there is a disparity in income between you and your spouse, the California guideline child support calculation and determining reasonable spousal support will be issues on your mind. You want to know who pays, how much, and for how long support will last.

If you are the higher income earner, you are concerned that you won't be able to manage two households. How can you fund your spouse's lifestyle while still supporting your own?

If you are a lower-income earner, such as a stay-at-home mom going through a divorce, you're concerned about how you will maintain your lifestyle without contributions from your husband and soon-to-be ex-husband.

Property, assets, and business

If you are going to divide property and assets, or you or your spouse have a divorce involving a business, how is the community property or separate property nature of these assets determined?

You want to know how California law splits the community and separate property and deals with allegations that something is the separate property of the other spouse. The most common question involves a house that is partially separate property because of a separate property downpayment that may have been made.

Spousal abuse or false allegations

If your marriage involved domestic violence, child abuse, or false allegations of child abuse, you're wondering whether a bad situation will become worse when the adversarial divorce process begins.

Make the unknown into the known, and let's kill the panic from your divorce.

Get informed. Knowledge is power in divorce. The right knowledge can give you reasonable expectations in your divorce case initially and throughout.

Look around this family law site - what do you see?

Look through the pages of the site.

We have written about nearly every part of divorce and family law, including child support, alimony in California, domestic violence restraining orders, and so much more.

How many divorce lawyers in do that for you? Not many. And rarely do such lawyers lay out the well-packaged volume of information we can offer for prospective clients and readers.

We did this for you - to lower your anxiety level by giving you the information you need to start you on the right track. It's not advice or a substitute for advice, but isn't it nice to get a springboard for good information before you even make the call?

Speaking of the call…

Free consultation? Big deal. What are you getting?

A lot of lawyers offer free consultations. So what?

Will the lawyer speak with you about your case? Will he or she ask you specific questions about your facts? Will the divorce lawyer answer your questions?

Not all consultations are created equal. We'll also let you in on a secret. Ours are awesome because they are true strategy sessions.

Ten steps toward finding the right California divorce lawyer

1. Get yourself informed. Read good articles about California's divorce law, like those on the pages of our family law site.

2. Be careful when family or friends try to give you divorce advice. Legal advice should be from licensed California attorneys experienced in family law. Bad information is sometimes worse than no information.

3. Interview at least 3 divorce lawyers before setting up a consultation. Ask them about their experience, knowledge, and cases similar to yours that they have handled.

4. Get references from the divorce lawyers. Reviews about the divorce attorneys you are looking to hire also help.

5. Have a real strategy session with the divorce lawyers that impressed you the most. Be clear about the retention process and reasonable expectations during the divorce. You should be given a written contract to sign when you are ready to proceed.

6. Stay away from unethical lawyers or those trying to sell you.

7. Consider whether therapy is a good idea, especially if you are struggling with emotions running high and low.

8. Work with your divorce lawyer to set a reasonable strategy and a budget for your case.

9. Communicate with your divorce attorney regularly.

Number 10 is darn important, so pay close attention.

10. Facts are stubborn things. Remain factual and logical, and treat your divorce in a business-like manner. Custody is all about your children's best interests.

Everything else is about the facts, law, and common sense. Your goal is to have fair results consistent with the facts and law. Divorce is not about revenge. It is not about the "principle" of it all. It's about making good decisions and moving forward with your life.

Do you have questions? We expected that. Let's talk. We can help.