You have booked your first consultation with a family lawyer. Now what?
You have made the difficult choice to separate and have booked an initial consultation with a family lawyer. Now what?
In many family law situations, the initial consultation with a family lawyer will not be free of charge and will likely cost you several hundreds of dollars. If you are going to be paying for this time with a prospective family lawyer that you may wish to then hire, it makes sense to utilize this time in the most efficient manner possible.
A separation and divorce can be one of the most emotional and difficult experiences a person will ever have to go through. As a result, the prospect of taking this step and attending at a first consultation with a family lawyer can be a stressful and overwhelming thought for many people. This is especially the case if you have not had much experience dealing with lawyers and especially if you have never personally been involved in a potentially contentious legal dispute. The stress level can be exacerbated if you are consulting with a lawyer during or shortly after the catalyst or event that led to the decision to separate.
In order to ensure that your initial consultation is a productive meeting and that you get good value for the money you are spending on such a meeting, the following are several basic recommendations that are important to keep in mind:
Before your initial consultation, take some time to think about and formulate a list of topics that are important to you and that you wish to discuss with the lawyer.
During the consultation, the family lawyer should ask you about the important facts of your situation. Based on what you tell the lawyer, the lawyer should then explain to you the law surrounding these issues and give you an indication of your rights and obligations.
If you have any court documentation that you have been served with, or any documentation which you feel may be pertinent to the meeting, make sure to bring these documents with you and bring them to the lawyer's attention.
Especially when it comes to being served with court documents, timing is crucial and can have a serious impact on your case. You want to ensure that the lawyer is aware of any deadlines with respect to filing documents or the dates of any upcoming court appearances.
It is always a good idea to prepare a list of questions that you wish to discuss during the meeting.
An unfortunately common occurrence during an initial consultation is that the prospective client will forget an important question they had wished to discuss and will only remember what that question was once they have already left the lawyer's office.
Lastly, make sure that you do not leave out any important details about your situation.
Your discussion with the family lawyer you have consulted with will be most useful if the lawyer is aware of all the important facts of the case. Although many of the issues may be extremely private and you may feel embarrassed or uncomfortable discussing these topics, it is extremely important for you to be honest and candid with the lawyer.
In order to schedule an initial consultation with one of the experienced family lawyers at Krol & Krol, call 905.707.3370.
