Getting a divorce is a sure-fire way to turn your entire life upside down. While in a perfect world, nobody would ever need a divorce attorney, and if they did, it would be just to draw up the uncontested paperwork.
Here at Justice Law Center, we have handled hundreds of Nevada divorce cases, and while some of them are easy, uncontested divorces that only require a bunch of paperwork, most are messy contested affairs that require a great deal of litigation. Divorces tend to come along with a lot of hurt feelings and psychological trauma. This makes trying to agree on all the issues that need to be addressed per Nevada Divorce Law difficult.
Matters like custody of any children, how to separate the assets and debts and who gets the house, amongst many other things, must be agreed on to get an uncontested divorce. If you can manage to come to an agreement with your soon to be ex-spouse, you still have to comply with Nevada law when it comes to custody and child support. Family law judges see child support as the child’s money, and you can’t just agree to not pay child support in exchange for the motor home in Nevada.
Sometimes it is hard to consider just how much you will need an experienced divorce attorney in your case. Even if you are close to reaching an agreement with your spouse, hiring a divorce attorney will speed up the settlement process and ensure that all of the paperwork is filed correctly.
A Lawyer is an Impartial and Reasonable Negotiator
It’s normal to think that hiring a lawyer while trying to negotiate a divorce would be seen as a threatening action. If your divorce has reached a point where communication is impossible, then you most certainly need a lawyer. You could also be concerned that if you hire a divorce attorney, then surely your spouse will lawyer up and before you know it, you are at trial. All these concerns are valid and unfortunately sometimes hiring an attorney will cause the other party to get a lawyer.
What it really boils down to is that often, when both parties hire representation, the entire divorce process gets easier for everyone. The reason for this phenomenon is that now, it is two completely impartial and reasonable professionals that are doing the talking. Neither divorce lawyer has suffered any sort of heartbreak or psychological trauma resulting from their relationship with the other. This allows the two professionals to negotiate with each other, with their own clients’ best interests and heart, in an attempt to come to a settlement that is fair and reasonable for everyone.
This sort of cooperation between counsels is very common amongst the divorce attorneys of Lyon County, and that makes Lyon County divorce court a much less hostile place than in some other jurisdictions in Nevada. But there still are many instances where much more aggressive litigation is called for.
When Your Divorce Attorney Must Fight for You
In the rare instances here in Lyon County when a divorce case must get messy, our team of lawyers here at Justice Law Center come to fight. There are many ways that a civil divorce can become a warzone, things like infidelity, domestic violence and others can create such a hostile environment that regardless of how good the divorce lawyers can negotiate, their clients just will not settle for anything less than the world.
In these situations, both attorneys begin to litigate. Litigation means that the lawyers begin filing complaints, answers and counterclaims, and other pleadings with district court. These documents that are filed with the court, are basically asking the judge to issue certain orders to protect the interests of their clients. These pleadings could ask for an order to temporarily freeze all of the party’s assets, enforce the delivery of financial documents and plead that the court issue other temporary orders such as custody, child support and temporary alimony.
Sometimes, these pleadings will be ruled upon by the judge out of court, but often they must also be argued in front of the judge. In a case management conference, which is normally the first hearing in a contested divorce, the divorce attorney’s must argue for their clients and in support of their pleadings, before the judge will issue an order. At the beginning of the divorce case, only temporary orders will be issued with the hopes that the parties can come to a settlement.
During this process a good divorce attorney will use all of the assembled evidence as well as appropriate case law to litigate in a way that the other party will agree to a fair settlement. If the law and the evidence is on your side, all it takes is an experienced divorce lawyer to get you a good deal.
Why No One Wants a Divorce Trial
The reason that the majority of divorce cases settle, is because of how ridiculously expensive and time consuming a divorce trial will be. Divorce trials can take days and depending on the issues, up to a whole week. While it may seem that lawyers would love going to trial, just based on how much they would make in fees, you have to understand that your lawyer has other clients whose cases cannot be ignored. So that means they would have to spend the entire workday in your divorce trial, just to go back to the office to work, when they would normally be going home to rest.
Not even judges like divorce trials because they tie up the courts valuable time and resources. Most court rooms will see several cases during a normal day. These cases are just as important to those involved as your divorce is to you. When a divorce case goes to trial, those cases cannot be heard and must be postponed.
It is for these reasons your lawyer, and very likely the opposing counsel, as well as the judge will lean on both spouses very heavily to reach a settlement in a contested divorce case. Even if both the parties want a trial, if only or the interest of pettiness, the judge and likely both attorneys will try very hard to talk sense to the parties. This is done with the very best interests of both parties in mind.
Justice Law Center in Lyon County Divorces
With all that being said, there are situations where it will be in the best interest of one of our clients to take a divorce to trial. When things like the mental health of the opposing spouse, or perhaps a danger to children if the other party is awarded custody are at play, a trial may be necessary. In these cases, you will need a divorce attorney that specializes in trial cases.
Here at Justice Law Center, the founding attorney Bret Whipple is a trial specialist, and if one of our clients needs a trial attorney, Mr. Whipple will enter an appearance on the case and bring all of his skill and experience into the divorce trial.
Hiring Justice Law Center for your contested divorce does send a clear-cut sign to the opposing party that you are ready for a fight if needs be. Our divorce attorneys will always act in the very best interests of our clients, and normally that means negotiating in good faith for a fair and equitable settlement. However, if a trail is necessary, we are always ready.
Call us today and set up a free consultation with one of our expert family law attorneys.
Josh Nay is a writer and paralegal with over 10 years of experience in personal injury cases, family law and criminal defense.
