singapore divorce lawyer

With the changes in family law during the last 30 years, like the adoption of equitable distribution as opposed to the old common-law rules, the adoption of laws protecting military spouses, and the adoption of support guidelines and various local rules promulgated within the different circuits, the location of separation and divorce is becoming too complicated and specialized for someone who not regularly handle these kinds of cases. It distresses us when clients come to us with poorly drafted separation agreements, and/or decrees which other inexperienced attorneys have handled. Just because it is way better to win at trial than to really have a great appeal issue, it's far better to have the right attorney, one that will get it right initially, than to have to cover anyone to fix problems stemming from errors made in the first place. Sometimes the errors are too costly and can't be fixed as shown in the group of articles I wrote for The Family Law News, a peer review publication of the Virginia State Bar, Area of Family Law, entitled "Costly Errors in Multi-State Military Divorce; Or a Military Wife's Tale of Woe," which are published in the Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 issues of the publication.

 

The group of articles outlines the legal authorities, strategy and procedural points we used to successfully defend a military retiree, who was simply an expert of the Vietnam War. His ex-wife was attempting to acquire 50% of his military retired pay and spousal support in Virginia, despite having divorce in singapore him six years earlier in Hawaii. While we are always happy to achieve a successful outcome for our clients, we felt sorry for the ex-wife, who'd received poor legal advice from hr attorney in the first divorce action in Hawaii, advice that result in poor decisions that your Virginia Court found to bind her permanently. In ruling for all of us in the event, the judge told the ex-wife that instead of suing her ex-husband, show should go after the attorney in Hawaii who represented her in the divorce.

 

So, how will you go about getting a good divorce lawyer? Here really are a few suggestions:

 

Suggestion #1-Ask a Lawyer

 

Knowing a lawyer, ask him/her for a referral to an excellent divorce lawyer. He or she will most likely know someone or several someones who devote a significant portion of the practice of law to separation and divorce and related issues. As an example, I have already been handling separation and divorce for 30 years and have an excellent reputation among the local legal community. Any divorce attorney worth his/her salt must have established a reputation among other lawyers. Lawyers generally know who is good for a certain type of case; they actually know who they'd see, if they certainly were facing separation and divorce.

 

Suggestion #2-Yellow Pages/Internet

 

While not a great source of information, the Yellow Pages and internet can be a beginning source of attorney names. Lawyers who don't mention separation, divorce, military divorce, and related areas like custody and support or property division, are not seeking cases in those areas and certainly don't devote a significant portion of the practice to those areas. Be leery of ads offering a laundry set of everything beneath the sun. Remember the old saying, "a jack of trades and master of none"? Wouldn't you rather have someone who takes the time to target at least a significant amount of time to family law, than someone who maybe devotes 3% of his/her practice to family law issues? Remember not everyone advertises in the Yellow Pages or haw an internet site or internet presence.. As an example, there are more telephone listings than there are attorney ads in the Yellow Pages.

 

SUGGESTION # 3-VIRGINIA LAWYER REFERRAL SERVICE

 

The Virginia Lawyer Referral Service is operated by the Virginia State Bar. Lawyers must ask to have on the list and must agree to a fixed fee for an initial consultation. A lawyer can be listed under any category he or she asks for. The names are on a revolving list and given to consumers who contact the service. Again, not absolutely all attorneys are listed. We're not listed with the referral service. This resource provides the name of an attorney who is seeking family law cases. This doesn't mean that the attorney is a specialist in these kinds of cases or that he or she is experienced. All it indicates is he or she's seeking divorce cases. Make sure you take the questions I speak about here to the attorney interview.