The first step in retaining the services of a qualified, experienced divorce attorney is an initial consultation. The typical divorce lawyer offers an initial consultation with a prospective client like you at no-cost and at no-obligation. When planning such an initial consultation, there are a series of questions to ask your divorce attorney.
Experience and Education
Experience is fundamental when it comes to hiring a suitable divorce lawyer. As a consequence, you need to ask prospective legal counsel about his or her specific experience in representing divorce clients.
Focus your questions about experience on the specific circumstances of your own case. For example, if you and your spouse have a custody dispute, find out the nature of an attorney’s experience in dealing with child custody disputes in marriage termination proceedings.
Fees and Costs
Obtain a specific delineation of how a divorce lawyer’s fee system actually works. There can be rather significant differences from one lawyer to the next. For example, some attorneys require a fairly substantial retainer up front. Others charge a flat fee for divorce services. Some lawyers offer clients in divorce cases fairly flexible payment plans.
Case Load
Find out what a lawyer’s caseload is like. You do not want to engage the services of a divorce attorney that is already overwhelmed with cases. At the other extreme, if an attorney has an unusually small caseload, he or she may be newer to the profession (and lacking experience) or may have had issues providing clients with suitable services in the past.
Outline Strategy
One key part of an initial consultation is to discuss a preliminary strategy for your case. This is not a specific discussion of an action plan. However, a talented, adept attorney should be able to layout a reasonably cogent strategy for how he or she proposes dealing with the primary issues in your marriage dissolution case.