All About Family Law in Richmond, VA
Family law as a legal practice tends to involve all of those issues concerning the family. It has the potential to cover virtually every area of our lives, including marriage and divorce. From negotiating a wealthy prenuptial or separation agreement to filing for a no-fault or fault based divorce, or even for a collaborative divorce, these attorneys handle the legal documentation needed for a legal proceeding. They may also help with child custody cases, from a modification of existing arrangements to those involving allegations of abuse, parental alienation and relocation . Common situations handled by attorneys include those connected to visitation, child support, alimony and spousal support, and property distribution and division. Lawyers specializing in this branch of the legal system also assist individuals seeking to adopt a child, and can also aid in matters dealing with abuse and neglect. Those needing help with prenups, divorce, domestic violence, or child support, or any of these associated issues can find help by consulting with a Richmond, VA law firm offering free counsel.
The Value of a Free Consultation
The availability of a free consultation with a family law attorney can be a vital factor in your decision-making process. Most importantly, it will help you understand your legal options, and find out if the attorney is a good fit for your case. On top of that, there are many benefits a free consultation offers:
It allows you to avoid financial obligation when you’re searching for an attorney. An attorney search is a big decision—one that should be made when you feel confident with the candidate and his or her ability to handle your case. If you’re being charged for a consultation, you may not be able to shop around for the right attorney. If a consultation doesn’t work out, you could be out a lot of money with no benefit.
It helps you gauge the lawyer’s honesty and transparency. The best family law attorneys know that offering a free consultation isn’t enough—clients want transparency when it comes to costs and procedures. Your lawyer of choice should be forthcoming with a clear breakdown of costs as well as the realities of the law (including any risks) so if you must pay for a consultation, it’s worth the investment. Don’t just sign on to a lawyer without knowing about the costs involved.
It will give you a feel for how the firm operates, and how you programmatically fit into the scenario presented to you. For example, if the firm prides itself on excellent customer service and you have to play telephone tag for days on end, this may hint at other issues. You should be able to see first-hand how the firm utilizes a client management system, how the attorneys communicate with clients and a range of other details during the free consultation.
What Makes a Good Family Law Attorney
First, and foremost, you want your family law attorney to be a competent and experienced lawyer. So this means that since you have a problem in family court, you want to hire a lawyer who has experience in family court matters. There are many lawyers that practice family law issues that do not spend the majority of their time in family courts. We believe in many cases these lawyers could possibly do more harm eventually to the client’s case. You should do your homework on the qualifications of the lawyers you are interviewing to make sure that the lawyer you do hire has the experience that is necessary to properly represent you.
Second, your lawyer has to have compassion. Most family law problems may be some of the worst times in your life. Therefore, you want a lawyer who understands what you are going through and one who can be empathetic to your situation.
Third, you want your lawyer to be able to communicate issues to you so that you can understand them. You should expect the lawyer you hire to be a good communicator with excellent verbal and written skills. Your lawyer should be able to explain to you many things that are very difficult to understand when you are involved in family court litigation.
Preparing for Your Free Consultation
A free consultation is not the same as a paid consultation. A lawyer will give you a great deal of time and guidance in a 45-minute or less free consultation.
A good family law attorney should be able to answer all of your questions in the first meeting. If you leave the meeting with questions unrelated to your own case or trust your case is more complex than you originally thought, you probably need additional paid time with your attorney.
Realistically, you want to get through all of your questions and leave knowing what your next steps are. You do not want to worry about new questions outside of the free consultation you received with your family law attorney. You want to have your questions answered at the free consultation.
The best way to be ready for your free consultation with a family law attorney is to gather your information and be prepared. Bring in all relevant documents, whether they are your financials, a separation agreement you signed but didn’t follow, or bank records.
Bring a list of prepared questions. Think about the question, why it is a question for your lawyer, and be prepared to explain why you are asking that question. You are using this free consultation time to ask questions relevant to your case. You want your attorney completely up to speed by the end of the meeting. That means you should be able to ask questions already answered in court petitions or discovery interrogatories.
If you haven’t figured out what your questions are by the time of your appointment with a family law attorney , that is OK. You can ask questions about your case as you move along that you may not have thought of at your initial appointment. However, you paid for the free consultation and your lawyer will likely expect you to be up to speed on your own situation and ask questions specific to it.
Bring any settlement agreement you have entered into. Bring anything signed by you that impacts your agreements with your spouse. You do not want to get into trouble over a piece of paper you forgot to bring to an important meeting, especially when there is so much at stake.
Be ready to ask your questions and answer those that may seem simple but are crucial to the case. Family law attorneys are able to start talking score with their client by explaining the law, the procedure, and what is likely to happen. It is a bonus when you do not have to spend time teaching your lawyer what you mean by "you’re trying to take my house!" You can get right into the good stuff and turn the meeting into a productive and informative one where you walk away with a full understanding of the next steps.
When you are ready for the consultation, you can focus on more than basic information. You can start the process of building a relationship with the lawyer, while adding value to his or her advice. That being said, don’t get so caught up by preparing too much you leave no time for the relationship to start. The attorney you work with is someone that will be helping you through one of the more difficult periods in your life; you will want to form a relationship with your new lawyer, and perhaps even the new firm you work with.
Highly Rated Family Law Attorneys in Richmond, VA
The Richmond family law attorneys who provide free consultations include:
Harris and Associates
Harris and Associates provides a free phone consultation, and has an office in downtown Richmond. Richmond Attorney Johnson Harris Jr. has over a decade of experience handling Richmond area divorce cases and some of his colleagues also offer services to clients. This family law firm has successfully represented clients in cases of divorce, child custody, child visitation, spousal support, juvenile delinquency, and guardianship issues.
Morris and Morris, PC
This Richmond law firm handles family law cases including custody, visitation, child and spousal support, annulment, separation, and adoption. They offer free telephone consultations with a Richmond lawyer, and all of their family law attorneys have considerable trial experience.
Ferguson Case Orringer, LLC
One of the Richmond law firms that do divorce, visitation, custody, and support. They believe that you should be able to speak directly to an attorney when you call, so they will have one of their lawyers speak to you before you come in for a free consultation.
Maximize the Value of Your Consultation
When you find a family law attorney in Richmond, VA offering free consultation, your immediate inclination may be to schedule one immediately. After all, this is an opportunity to get some straightforward answers, talk about your case and your options, and most importantly – IT’S FREE!! Before you go in to see the attorney, consider what you need out of this meeting in order for you to evaluate the lawyer as a competent legal advisor that has your best interests at heart, and to determine their fitness for your case.
The test for this is really no different than for any other purchase decision. You want to be sure you are hiring the right lawyer for you. It’s not about finding the best lawyer in the world, because there is no such person, and even if there was, that would likely not be the right person for you. So what do you want out of a meeting with a lawyer during a free consultation? Well, you probably want to hear an initial assessment of your problem, and how they would go about fixing it. You probably want to understand the process they envision as well, and what it would mean for you. There are likely questions about their experience with cases like yours, both in terms of the type of law and the potential outcome. You want to also start to get to know what makes them tick, in terms of their temperament and style, and to evaluate whether you think they can be an ally in navigating the legal process.
So what questions should you focus on? A good place to start would be to ask what they see happening with regard to legal action for your scenario. This will give you insight into their strategy, how quickly they think things can resolve, and how your objectives fit into the attorney’s style and process. You’ll also get an opportunity to ask for their view on how the court system tends to interpret scenarios like yours. Do you agree with what their view? If someone disagrees with the lawyer’s assessment of the situation and thinks they’re out to lunch, then they probably are! Are they saying things you disagree with or have questions about? Ask them to explain further . It is often beneficial to ask follow-up questions until you fully understand something, and why not do that now? Your goal here is information, and that means full understanding.
You should also get an opportunity to talk about your input to the attorney-client relationship. All great consultants will want to know more about you and your objectives, but more importantly, they should be asking you about your preferred methods of communication, whether you want to be more involved or less, and how closely you should expect to be updated on progress.
For example, I have a client I met during a free consultation that disagreed with nearly everything I was saying, and wanted to handle the case exactly the opposite way I advised. In many ways, they were the most difficult type of client, who wanted to control the outcome (and make their own decisions) while also getting hand-holding and support for these decisions and the process. I knew that it would be hard to work together on a plan because of this, and we talked about this aspect of the case openly. Later, I had another client that I had a free consultation with that agreed with nearly everything I said, but they would have been a completely wrong fit! They just didn’t take the time to understand the advice they were given, and thought it might be "easier" or less expensive to go their own route. Unfortunately, this prevented us from working together. This attorney-client relationship is a two-way street, and that is the value of the free consultation.
It is important to understand what the lawyer envisions for your case before you decide to go with them, and also whether you agree with their view. Again, there is no right answer, but you need to know up front what you can expect from the process and your attorney. If they don’t sell you on your case anyway, then they might be the wrong fit.