Family law clients use the term "aggressive" when they search for a lawyer. "I want an aggressive lawyer", I sometimes hear people state. What is aggressive?
What does that term mean when describing the best divorce lawyers in Orange County?
An aggressive lawyer is thought to be a zealous one…a divorce lawyer that is passionate about the client and the case.
Is that a bad thing? No. But aggressiveness without intelligence and temperament is not only unwise but unnecessarily expensive - a cost that you, as a prospective client, pay.
There are two types of aggressive lawyers.
The first is the one you don't want. When you search for the best divorce lawyers in Orange County and you talk to various ones, be very careful of those divorce lawyers who speak with you about the following:
Using litigation to cause fees to your spouse so that he or she will surrender his or her legal rights
Dissuading you from settlement discussions because litigation and court intervention is necessary
Increasing your custody time or decreasing the custody time of the other parent to increase your child support
Making false allegations of abuse, domestic violence or others against your spouse to gain leverage on other issues
Divorce lawyers in Orange County who make such suggestions or anything similar to this do not have your best interest at heart. Such divorce lawyers have the intention to cause unnecessary litigation for the purpose of increasing your lawyer's fees. Just as bad, you become responsible for such divorce lawyer's conduct. If your lawyer engages in misconduct, refuses to resolve issues and engages in unnecessary litigation, and your spouse files an attorney fee motion against you because of your lawyer's conduct, you are responsible for that. So not only do you waste your own fees on such divorce lawyers but you will likely pay your spouse's fees, in whole or in part, at the court's discretion.
The right type of "aggressive" divorce lawyer handles a case very differently. Consider the following:
The best divorce lawyers take the time to go over with you all of the issues in your family law case. The aggressiveness is used to ensure no assumptions are made when there are facts and there is a clarity with the facts so that he or she knows the issues as well as you do.
The best divorce lawyers aggressively attempt and help you to settle the easiest issues on your case, consistent with California law, so that time and money is not wasted on fluff or things that ought to be reasonably resolved.
The best divorce lawyers identify issues that won't settle and document your attempts to settle them. Why? Because if your spouse is unreasonable in the positions he or she takes (or your spouse's lawyer is), that documentation will assist you in recovering lawyer's fees from your spouse.
The best divorce lawyers in Orange County aggressively advocate your position to the family court but they also do so respectfully. Yelling and screaming is a foolish lawyer's game in family court. Judges tune it out. The best divorce lawyers in Orange County know this.
See the difference? It is significant. You are not hiring a "pit bull" or any other type of silly term that is used to describe lawyers.
You are hiring an experienced and intelligent advocate who will make a reasonable attempt to settle your case, not cause unnecessary fees and costs and, when the divorce does not settle, take the case to trial. That is how our law firm handles cases. Would you like to see how successful our style is? Read reviews by former clients about our family law attorneys. Read our case results page. The pages speak for themselves.
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