Family Law, Divorce, Custody and Child Support Attorneys in Denver, Colorado

Pick the Right Attorney

When it comes to hiring a Colorado family law attorney you obviously have many sole practitioners and firms to choose from. Yet this single choice, more than any other, can save you the most money in the long run. You are likely to save money by choosing a firm that:

• Communicates with you
• Practices extensively in family law
• Invests in productivity
• Maintains advanced technology
• Has substantial experience with cases like yours
• Maintains a network of outside professionals
• Employs a team of experienced staff and support personnel

Seek out a firm who already knows a lot about your type of family law case. Avoid a lawyer who’s aloof, looks at you like you’re inventory instead of a person or doesn’t seem to have a lot of experience with the issues that you’re dealing with.

You’ll be sharing some of the most intimate details of your life with this person. Make sure you’re comfortable with them as a human being.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Come Prepared

One of the main things you can do to save money is be prepared. You can organize your information or your lawyer can, but it must be organized for the court.  Spending your time gathering the financial information required for disclosure will save you a fortune in legal bills.

Have all of your paperwork together when you meet with your attorney. Show up to your appointments on time and be ready to make the most of the time you have with the law firm. Often, an attorney will base their retainer, in part, on how much work they anticipate having to do. Some of that assessment includes what type of client you appear to be. Are you disorganized? Are you late for the appointment? Are your documents incomplete or messy? The first impression you give will be a lasting one.

Staying focused on the issue of the day, instead of how it will “turn out” cuts down on repetitive conversations – and therefore repetitive charges.  The last thing you want is to have a lawyer lay out each and every option they can possibly dream up. When you’re being billed by the hour, a drawn out conversation can add a quick $500 to the tab.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Scan Your Documents

Document management can cost clients thousands of dollars. Copying, sorting, organizing and reviewing can add up to hours and hours for staff, paralegals and lawyers. One way to significantly reduce this expense is to scan your own documents and organize them with descriptive titles. Provide only the digital documents to your divorce lawyer on disk or by email, organized into folders. It’ll make their lives easier and your bills smaller.

Also, we all know using technology make businesses more efficient.  Law firms are no different.  Their efficiency should show up in your bill (it should be less) and in their work product (it should be better).  When you interview a law firm and ask if they prefer email and scan documents, listen carefully for signs as to how this will save you money – because it should.  And if they don’t use email and scanned documents, well, what can we say?

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Short Phone Calls

Since you’re paying your attorney on an hourly basis, keep your telephone conversations short — the meter is always running. Avoid making several calls a day; instead, consolidate your questions and ask them all in one conversation.

Stay focused.  Ask yourself if you already know the answer to your question.  Think about the value of the lawyer‘s time in providing an answer.  For example, if you call up the lawyer and have a 40 minute conversation about how much you really want to get the small TV in the bedroom, you’ve just spent at least $200 to try and get an asset worth maybe $75.

Also, pass on information to support staff rather than speaking directly with the attorney unless you have a specific reason to do so. Remember, you’re in control of who answers your questions and takes your information.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Use Email

There’s no doubt that using email is the most cost effective way of communicating with your attorney. People read faster than they talk, plus email tends to focus questions and abbreviate answers.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Review Your Billing Statements

The bill for your lawyer’s fees and costs should be clear, consistent and sent out regularly. Do not accept summary statements such as the single phrase “Litigation work” to explain a block of time for which you are billed a great deal of money, and watch out for hidden expenses; find out what expenses you must cover and what expenses the attorney will cover.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Help Your Lawyer

You should constantly be asking your lawyer what things you can do to help your case and save on fees and costs. Many tasks related to financial information gathering and the preparation of your Sworn Financial Statement can be effectively and more cheaply performed by you.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Avoid Court

Sometimes you have control over this, and sometimes you don’t. An unreasonable, or unbalanced spouse can often leave you no option but to ask the judge for help, but in those cases where you do have control, rest assured that going to a hearing will create the most expense of the entire case.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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Be Realistic

Unreasonable clients should expect to charged accordingly. One of the most important ways for a client to reduce attorney fees is by making informed and reasonable decisions about the management of their case.

It’s hard to think clearly in the middle of a divorce.  So many emotions and memories can become involved in our decisions.  This clouded judgment can sometime result in unreasonable expectations.  And while some people perceive going to court as “rolling the dice” there is almost always nothing random about the law.  It’s not as if the judge would give you 100% of the marital estate one day, and 20% the next.

Since the law is not random, and since many aspects of a divorce are highly predictable, you should really trust your lawyer when they tell you “you can’t get it”, whatever “it” might be.  Ask why, no doubt.  But once they’ve explained it, move on.  You can spend an infinite amount money arguing against a foregone conclusion – and it won’t change a thing except making the lawyer rich.

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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