What Is A Family Law Attorney?
When you're dealing with any issues involving your family, you have the option to hire a family law attorney. They have skills specific to family law that will help you achieve your goal.
What Is Family Law?
Just as it sounds, family law revolves around the family.
This could involve things like:
- Child custody
- Child support
- Adoption
- Divorce
- Paternity
- Prenuptial agreements
Family law will sometimes cross over into criminal law. For example, if the case is involving domestic or child abuse, there will most likely be an investigation and charges. The investigation and charges for abuse would take place outside of family court. The family court and law's responsibility lies with the safety of the victim of the abuse.
What Does a Family Law Attorney Do?
If you choose to hire a family law attorney, they will fight to meet your goal. When children are involved in a case, your lawyer will always put the children's best interests first. It is possible that your lawyer may recommend something, like raising your child support or decreasing your visitation rights, and it won't seem fair to you at the time. It's important to keep an open mind because your lawyer may see something that you cannot.
Your lawyer may do the following to meet your goal outcome:
- Represent you in court, if necessary
- Negotiate on your behalf
- Provide mediation
- Offer legal advice
- Assist in prenuptial agreement drafting
- Assist in drafting or changing child custody agreement
Depending on the reason you hired your lawyer, there are several things they can do to help you through your case. Just like you, they don't want your case to go to trial because things just get hard and messy. They will work with you and the other party and best as possible to settle things before it gets to court.
What Makes a Good Family Law Attorney?
When you're meeting with family law attorneys, make sure your personalities are compatible. If you and your attorney are opposites, that could create unnecessary tension. It's also important to find an empathetic attorney. If you're in family court, you're most likely going through a tough time, and finding an attorney who can understand that and remain patient with you is huge.
Cost of a Family Law Attorney
The cost of a family attorney will vary by each case. Your location, the difficulty of the case, and whether you go to trial or not are all things that can affect the cost. The cost of hiring a lawyer may seem high, but when you win your case, you'll realize it was worth it.