When you go through an Orange County divorce, the process can be painful. Sometimes though, these divorce cases can drag on and on making life difficult for the spouse involved in the process since the spouse will have to bear the expenses of the lawyer fighting the divorce cases and an open case without resolution.
Getting through your divorce expediently can be achieved in a number of different ways. Here are a few tips to speed up your divorce case.
Set Reasonable Goals
Sometimes it is not the other side that is causing the delay. Sometime it’s just the unreasonable expectations of both spouses that are stretching the case beyond limit. Yes you might have gone through a lot in a married life, yet the fact of the matter is that your divorce is not a battlefield. Here you cannot fight your personal battles for long. Sooner or later, you will need to set your goals reasonably or else the decision of the judge could be painful for you to swallow.
Set Timelines
To make sure that your Orange County divorce lawyer does not keep churning legal fees and asking you for more money, before the case starts you should sit down with them and set a deadline (prospective) of when you would like the case to end. That way your lawyer can work to “put wheels” on your divorce.
Make Use of the Sanctions Motion Under Family Code 271
California Family Law section 271 is a powerful one. The code has been specifically designed to ensure that the divorce process is kept moving at a brisk pace and there is no undue delay caused. The Statute in itself is one which gives you the power of asking the other spouse who is delaying the proceedings to pay your legal bill for the divorce proceedings. The section works even if you are perfectly capable of affording your legal bill.
Primarily this article is designed to punish any and all unreasonable behavior conducted by the spouse to delay the proceedings of the divorce case. For this code section to be made use of the spouse claiming the enforcement of this statute code will need to prove that the other spouse’s lawyer is causing the delay in proceedings.
What is important to understand here is that the use of this code is meant to be made as a hammer and not a bullet. This means that if you can prove that behavior of your spouse is erratic and is delaying the case, the courts will be highly unlikely to give them a way out once they have been asked to pay the attorney fees.
Gerald A. Maggio is an experienced Orange County divorce and family law lawyer and family law attorney located in Irvine, California, serving the Orange County and Riverside areas. Mr. Maggio assists clients with legal issues including divorce, legal separation, divorce mediation, child custody, prenuptial agreements, stepparent adoptions, and other family law issues. Mr. Maggio has practiced law in California since 1999, and founded The Maggio Law Firm in 2005, focusing exclusively on divorce and family law matters.
When you are looking to make the most of your divorce case, one of the most important people is your divorce lawyer. The importance of divorce lawyers cannot be stressed enough since they are the mouth pieces of the spouse in the court and are the ones who develop your case strategy. Keeping these facts in mind, it is important that you are able to get services of the right attorney for you that is suitable to your case.
The Bias Sell
There are things that some divorce lawyers do to try to get a potential client to retain them. One of these things is claiming bias exists in the legal system. In other words, such lawyers sell to their clients on the claim that the California law system is somehow against men. As far as their claim of bias is concerned, California Family Law section 3040 states that, “In making an order granting custody to either parent, the court shall consider, among other factors, which of the parent is likely to allow the child frequent and continuing contact with a non custodial parent.” In this day and age, there is no general bias against men or fathers in divorce or custody cases, and custody is generally decided on the circumstances of individual cases.
The Over-Aggressive Sell
There are a variety of lawyers that use aggressive selling techniques to make sure that they are able to entice the client into using their services. Such lawyers are likely to use the action words such as “going for the kill”, “taking her down” and “squeezing each and every penny from them.” These kinds of lawyers are likely to tell the father that litigation is the only chance that they have of success and to teach the mother a lesson. This, however, is not the case, because the more you go aggressively against your spouse, the more bitter the effect it is likely to have on your children.
The Unethical Sell
It is imperative to avoid anyone who may encourage clients to evade and disregard the law in a bid to protect their assets or position themselves favorably in custody cases in a less than honest way. False allegations and incomplete declarations of assets is one example. It is always better to be transparent when it comes to disclosure of assets and what the “truth” really is, because taking the low road can often backfire and have negative consequences in your case.
Gerald A. Maggio is an experienced Orange County divorce and family law lawyer and family law attorney located in Irvine, California, serving the Orange County and Riverside areas. Mr. Maggio assists clients with legal issues including divorce, legal separation, divorce mediation, child custody, prenuptial agreements, stepparent adoptions, and other family law issues. Mr. Maggio has practiced law in California since 1999, and founded The Maggio Law Firm in 2005, focusing exclusively on divorce and family law matters.