If your goal is a good divorce settlement, it makes sense to choose an attorney with skills, training and experience in getting good settlements. Why would you go to a trial lawyer? If you had a heart problem, would you go to an orthopedist?
Divorce settlement negotiations are different from pretrial negotiations
Most lawyers are trained in adversarial trial tactics; they bring those tactics to the negotiating table. My early training as a divorce lawyer followed this antagonistic model. After years as a divorce attorney, I could see that our adversarial court system is not set up to support a reasonable, non-combative approach to dissolving a marriage. So, I decided to get some training in collaborative divorce and mediation. It was eye-opening! I had to unlearn much of what I thought I knew about settlement negotiations.
Indeed, see my recent blog about how an attorney who spent a lot of time doing trial work torpedoed a settlement negotiation. Click here: https://www.westchesterdivorcelawyer.com/looking-for-a-divorce-attorney-and-want-to-avoid-court/
In a collaborative or mediated divorce, you have more control
Going to court is risky. You are placing your fate in a judge’s hands. By contrast, in a collaborative or mediated divorce, you and your spouse have some control of the outcome. You are much more likely to achieve a good settlement and a good long-term aftermath. Over my 30-plus-year career as a divorce lawyer, I have told countless clients, “Get your needs met in a settlement. At trial you roll the dice.”
If you are serious about avoiding the risk of going to court, hire a settlement professional. The skills involved in creating a viable settlement are different from the skills involved in preparing for a trial. A collaborative attorney has those settlement skills.
