A divorce attorney represents clients in divorce or marriage dissolving actions in the court and provides various legal services. A competent divorce attorney needs expertise in the field of family law and mediation. Interview attorneys to find out how knowledgeable they are concerning expectation form the courts in your jurisdiction and if they can use this knowledge to your advantage. Use an attorney whose practice is devoted to divorce law.
The first responsibility of a divorce attorney is to develop legal documents that notify the person who is being divorced that proceedings are in process. Then the attorney files a summons and complaint in the appropriate court. Once these documents have been received back from the spouse, a response answering the claims and presenting any defenses to the claims can be issued. A divorce action is determined after the summons, and both the complaint and the responsive motions are filed with the family court.
Attorneys for the divorcing couple determine if the divorce will be non-contested or contested. Non-contested divorces indicate the couple agrees to the divorce and there will be no issues. A contested divorce may involve a trial or a hearing before a judge. Property issues, custody and support will be discussed, written down and placed before the judge. The divorce attorney will act for the client in either a contested or non-contested divorce.
In a non-contested divorce the divorce attorney will instruct his client to gather personal and financial information. The parties will sit down and partition possessions, spousal and child support and child custody. A settlement contract is drawn up by the divorce attorney that outlines the rights and responsibilities of each party. At that time, if both parties do not agree to the settlement, the divorce becomes contested, new documents filed and a trial or hearing will commence with the judge determining allocation and custody.
DISCLAIMER: This is not legal advice, and should not be construed as legal advice or relied upon as legal advice.
Neill Marangi - nmarangi@pacbell.net
No comments:
Post a Comment