Divorce Lawyer – Why and How to Hire Checklist, Consultation Questions, Locations in BC We Serve

Who is a Divorce Lawyer?

A Divorce Lawyer is someone who can legally help when a relationship or marriage breaks down. He or she will provide you with legal advice on all your rights and obligations. This is to make sure you make informed and wise decisions with respect to financial and other aspects of your marriage breakdown. A divorce lawyer will do everything from advising, negotiating, mediating or representing you in court if need be.

A divorce lawyer’s main purpose is to protect you and your rights. This does not mean constantly fighting or raising tensions. This means helping you resolve your matrimonial matters in the most time and cost-efficient way.

Relationship breakdowns are always sad. Falling in love is magical, falling out of love is painful. But it happens, all too often. Regardless of the causes of divorce, it’s important to move on with life and have both spouses be happy, even if it’s no longer with each other. As a leading family law firm in British Columbia, we are here to guide you through the process of ending a marriage if that is what you choose to do.

Articles in this series:

Why Hire a Divorce Lawyer?  Divorce is a Complicated, Emotional Process

A marriage is more than just a casual relationship. Marriage is a legal intertwining of two lives. Unwinding those lives is a complicated process. The more time you are together, the harder it can be to go your separate ways. Divorce can make people bitter, angry, selfish and bring out the worst in people.

Usually, both people involved want what’s in their best interest. In turn, this may be in conflict with what will work for the other person. That’s where an Adjudicator or a Judge may get involved. An Adjudicator or Judge is someone who reviews both sides’ arguments and makes a decision. The judge’s decision could make or break your future. That is when a divorce lawyer and her services can become perhaps the most important service you could use in your life. The family lawyer will be able to present your rights, arguments and case in the best and most proper light possible; this will likely influence the judge’s decision in your favour. But obviously hiring a divorce lawyer can be daunting and difficult. 

The truth is that most people do not trust divorce lawyers. They think we are greedy and only after people’s money. That we want to create acrimony and fights just to make a buck. Obviously, this has been true in some circumstances, otherwise, we wouldn’t have the unfortunate image we have. But trust me, some of us want to help and your life and family matter to us. Yes, we charge for our services just like anyone else does, but that doesn’t mean some of us do not care. At least I do. We give our hearts and souls to our clients and their happiness is our happiness. Their sadness is our sadness. We handpick our lawyers through a very rigorous process to make sure they are good people and are here to help. But back to trying to hire the right lawyer, how do you go about that to find the right lawyer, not someone who may take advantage of your vulnerabilities?

How to Know if a Divorce Lawyer is Good – Checklist on Which Lawyer to Hire

A good Divorce Lawyer is able to combine what is best for you with the legal system.  He or she will sculpt an image of you for the judge or at mediation. He or she will communicate your story in a legally sound way and will save you from pitfalls. He or she will also make sure you don’t waste your money on needless fights, or things that are not in your best interests. An experienced Divorce Lawyer is someone you can also trust to:

• Discuss your legal rights after separation;
• Understand your story and your priorities;
• Understand the law;
• Have experience and know what to do when you don’t;
• Become one with you at every stage of your separation;
• Can communicate your rights and wishes effectively;
• Protect your finances instead of wasting them;
• Care about you and your family;
• Prevent conflict by taking emotions out of issues;
• Help with child custody;
• Help negotiate spousal support and child support payments;
• Determine an appropriate division of property or debt;
• Navigate prenuptial and post-nuptial agreements;
• Help secure restraining orders;
• Provide you resources and recommend services that can help you start a new life

Hiring a Good Divorce Lawyer for Mediation or DIY Divorce – Amicable Divorce or Separation

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes couples makes is thinking that because their divorce is amicable, they won’t need a lawyer. This is like selling a house to someone at an agreed-upon price, but not doing the inspection to make sure there won’t be problems in the future. Even if your separation or divorce is amicable, you must make sure any agreement in divorce is reviewed by a lawyer to ensure there are no potential problems in the future. Mediation can help you reach an agreement without having to hire a Lawyer. But it’s still vital to have a qualified lawyer review your agreement and save you from any pitfalls. This is also true for DIY divorce.

You don’t want to let a minor oversight cause you problems in the future if your former spouse decides something wasn’t fair. We have seen so many court cases on bad agreements or when someone didn’t have the advice of a lawyer get into a lot of trouble. A successful Divorce Lawyer has seen virtually every scenario and knows how to avoid problems that could potentially happen in the future. You won’t get this level of service with mediation and you may not know how to protect yourself if you are trying to do it yourself. There are many other reasons to hire a Divorce Lawyer. Let’s move on to what to look for when hiring a Lawyer.

How to Hire a Divorce Lawyer – 10 Things to Look For

Choosing the right Divorce Lawyer for your case can be tough. You will need to trust the person you choose to represent you. It is very important that you are 100% honest with them. Having confidence in your Lawyer to look out for you is also imperative.

Take your time initially and choose the right lawyer, not necessarily the first lawyer. There is nothing worse than wasted time and money having to hire another lawyer when you are already dealing with so much emotion. Here’s a checklist of how to go about hiring a Divorce Lawyer:

1. Start with a search online or go through some of the articles here to get a better understanding of the divorce or separation process; 
2. Looks for solid reviews, not Google Ads or lawyers promising you the world, because most likely they will not deliver and you will end up wasting money;
3. Ask friends or family for a recommendation if they have gone through a divorce or know someone who has; please do not ask your friends and family for legal advice! They are not lawyers and may make the situation a lot worse. Would you go to your friend and ask whether you should have heart surgery? Or would you go to a heart surgeon? This is the same thing when it comes to divorce. Only ask experts for expert advice. 
4. Visit various family law firm websites and get a feel for their process and team; 
5. Does the lawyer work with other lawyers? Do they work together to represent you and draw on each other’s experiences? Or is this the only person who will be working on your case? It’s best to get a team of lawyers working on your case than just one. At YLaw all our lawyers discuss their files with each other to come up with the best solution for every client’s case; 
6. Set up a meeting to review your situation with a divorce lawyer. Some may do a free consultation, but be careful with those. During those meetings, the Lawyer’s goal is to sign you as a client, not help you with your case. Paying for an hour’s time to get advice from a good Divorce Lawyer is well worth it rather than trying to save on an hour of advice and ending up with a bad Lawyer or no Lawyer. If you pay for the consultation the Lawyer’s goal is to give you advice, not a sales pitch;
7. Does the tone of the website match what you hear in the meeting? If the website made you comfortable enough to meet with a Lawyer, do you still have that same level of comfort?
8. Ask about fee estimates and the process; make sure you are clear on both; 
9. See if you can do some of the work yourself, with direction from the lawyer; this will reduce your costs;
10. Trust your gut. If something doesn’t seem right now, chances are it won’t get any better. 

What Are Some Questions Your Divorce Lawyer May ask You?

While you are meeting with your new Lawyer, they may ask you some very personal, private questions. You should be prepared to answer these questions because it will determine how your Lawyer goes about representing you. Divorce Lawyers know that no one is perfect. We all have baggage and different things in life we enjoy or dislike. A good family lawyer is not here to judge you. He or she is here to help you. Everything you tell the lawyer is confidential.  Your honest answers will also help your Lawyer to understand what you are entitled to. Some questions you may be asked include:

• Are there any physical or emotional abuse issues?
• Are there children involved?
• How much do you make and how much does your spouse make?
• What assets did you and your spouse have before you met? What assets did you and your spouse bring into the relationship?
• Are they any debts that need to be shared?
• Are there any affairs?

Remember, the conversation you have is private, and cannot be disclosed to anyone outside the firm without your consent. Further, it’s nothing your Lawyer hasn’t heard before. There are very few new stories about divorce. Usually, it is different versions of the same issues. Your story is probably not even the worst your Lawyer has heard. There’s nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about. Divorce is something that happens to a lot of people and a good Lawyer will be able to put you at ease and represent you well. When choosing a lawyer you may also wish to find one that is close to you.

Divorce Lawyer Office Locations – YLaw Family Law Firm: Vancouver and Surrey

YLaw is a full-service family law firm. We have a team of several highly qualified Family Law Lawyers with decades of experience. When you hire one of our Lawyers, you get the knowledge and experience of our whole team. We routinely meet and discuss different cases together. This allows us to collectively determine the top recommendations for you. YLaw serves the entire Metro Vancouver and the Greater Vancouver Area. We have law offices in Yaletown and Surrey, British Columbia. Reach out to us and see how we can help you with your case.

Contact Us for More Information About Hiring a Divorce Lawyer

The hardest part of starting the divorce process and hiring a Divorce Lawyer is picking up the phone. That is also the beginning of moving on towards a new, happier you. We are here to help and look forward to discussing your case with you. Call us today at 604.974.9529 or set up an appointment.