Negotiating favorable divorce settlements is an art form.  It takes a high degree of skill and experience to perfect.  A lawyer entering a divorce negotiation not only needs to have a mastery of the law but needs to be skilled in the art of negotiation.  Hiring the right attorney to represent you through divorce negotiations can potentially save you thousands of dollars in your divorce.

A good negotiator can negotiate directly with your spouse if he or she has not yet retained an attorney.  If your spouse has hired an attorney, then you definitely want to have an attorney of your own to negotiate directly with the opposing attorney.  Remember, your spouse’s lawyer represents them not you.  They have their vest interest in mind, not yours.  Don’t fall for a smooth lawyer who claims that he or she has your best interest in mind too.  This is not only a lie, but is unethical…

Having a divorce lawyer on your side during any negotiation process is a plus.  An attorney can be persuasive and achieve results that you didn’t even know were possible.  There is no guarantee that your lawyer will be able to achieve the exact results that you desire, but you certainly will have a better chance at achieving such results with him or her on your side.

A good negotiator can potentially convince your spouse:

• that an uncontested divorce is the best way to go
• to pay you spousal maintenance to avoid a costly contested divorce
• that a compromise is necessary regarding child custody and visitation
• that you should receive a certain asset to avoid costly litigation
• that your spouse should take responsibility for a certain liability or debt thereby releasing you from such responsibility
• that you and your spouse are better off reaching an agreed upon settlement outside of court than leave the results up to the court

If you think that your impending divorce could benefit from having a negotiating lawyer on your side, please call our toll-free number (866) 830-2064 to schedule your free divorce consultation now…

Searching for the right NY divorce attorney for you is a daunting task, especially with all the hype that’s out there on the web.  To get a sense of what I’m referring to, just Google “NY divorce specialist” and you will be inundated with a long list of lawyers and law firm that claim to “specialize” in NY divorce law.

The problem is that advertising as a “divorce specialist” is an ethical violation of Part 1200 – Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 7.4 which provides that:

[a] lawyer or law firm shall not state that the lawyer or law firm is a specialist or specializes in a particular field of law …

Under the Rules of Professional Conduct, lawyers may ethically state that they “concentrate” in an area of law which represents the majority of their practice.  Lawyers may also also state which areas their practice is limited to, if any.  But using the word “specialize” is an ethical violation that may result in disciplinary actions against the attorney advertising in such a way.

A New York lawyer who represents themselves as family law or divorce specialists either knows about this rule and is consciously disregarding it or is completely oblivious of their blatant violation.  Either way, this is a bad sign.  It should raise red flags for you during your search.  Anyone who is breaking rules or ignorant of them probably won’t amount to what I would call a “good” lawyer.  If they are making this mistake or simply don’t care, this is probably indicative of how they will represent you in your divorce: making serious mistakes or simply not caring about whether they violate the rules.

Choosing the right divorce lawyer for you is a difficult process.  You are an individual with personal needs and not every divorce lawyer will or should be a good match for you.  One way to make the process a little easier is to sift out the obvious bad choices by avoiding lawyers who either:

• know they are violating ethical rules and don’t care or
• who simply don’t know.

My NY divorce law practice concentrates solely on divorce law.  Feel free to contact us to set up your free New York divorce consultation.