What to Expect From Your Divorce Attorney

A divorce is a hard time for everyone involved, and if you are looking online for a “divorce attorney near me” in the Austin, TX area, it’s natural to want to know in advance what you should be expecting from a good attorney. Here’s what a quality divorce lawyer will deliver (as well as some red flags of a bad divorce attorney).

What to Expect From a Good “Divorce Attorney Near Me”

Extensive Experience

A good divorce attorney needs to have lots of experience and a track record of successful cases for their clients. Bear in mind that lots of experience includes lots of courtroom experience. Many divorces are indeed settled fairly amicably without the need for extended courtroom battles, but nearly every divorce has at least the potential to go to litigation and involve a long, drawn-out, and contentious battle.

That’s simply the nature of things when two people who were so close end up separating. You will be disadvantaged in comparison to your ex if you’re working with a lawyer who doesn’t have extensive experience handling everything from evidentiary hearings to full-blown trials.

Excellent Communication Skills

A good attorney must be a good communicator. This is a non-negotiable. Your attorney is going to need to talk extensively with you, and sometimes about things that are not easy to discuss. You need to feel at ease with this person and comfortable with telling them private things. Your attorney also needs to be able to talk effectively with your ex and/or your ex’s lawyer. Your attorney must be able to present your case in a convincing way in mediation and negotiations as well as in court, if necessary.

Good communication means a lot more than just a lawyer returning your phone calls. A good communicator should be able to listen to what you’re really saying and, when they say it back to you, it should be clear that they have understood you. A good communicator will also be able to give you an objective analysis of the strength of your case as well as tell you clearly what weaknesses and obstacles you’re likely to face.

Concern for Your Finances

A good divorce attorney understands that divorce is always expensive and is thinking about how to protect you. Going to trial, while it may very well be necessary, should never the immediate, gut reaction because trials are always more expensive than hashing things out in mediation. While you certainly want an attorney who has courtroom experience, and plenty of it, and one who isn’t afraid to go to court when it’s the right thing to do, you don’t necessarily want to work with a pit bull who immediately suggests heading straight to the courtroom (even if you might like the idea of taking your ex to court, emotionally).

A good attorney will help you keep emotionally balanced and help you weigh the pros and cons of every move in order to protect you and your finances. This also means your attorney will be upfront about their fees and what it’s likely to cost to get through your divorce.

Experience in the Austin, TX Family Law Courts

A good divorce attorney is not a jack-of-all-trades. Divorce is part of family law, and family law is a specific subset of Texas law that requires study and experience if you want to work well within it. It’s always important that you choose a lawyer who specifically works in family law, and you also want someone who has experience right here in Austin, TX.

Not only will a specifically “family law” attorney understand the Texas Family Law Code well and be able to apply it to your situation, but a local lawyer will know the other attorneys and the courtrooms here in Austin. This is important because someone with local experience understands exactly when and how to file paperwork perfectly, what the courts are looking for, and what the courts tend to decide in certain cases based on the available evidence.

Specificity

Finally, you should expect your divorce attorney to have a specific understanding of the law and to be working to get a specific understanding of your case. They should not be taking a cookie-cutter approach to the situation. They should not be relying solely on online forms, for example, or using the same template for every case. While some things will be the same from case to case when it comes to the official forms, there should also be an element of individuality to every filing. since every case is different.

Red Flags of a Bad Divorce Lawyer

If you see any of the following in your divorce attorney, don’t hesitate to look elsewhere for better help:

Not Communicating

If an attorney sounds confusing during your consultation and can’t re-state what they’re trying to say in another way, this could be a problem for your communication and the success of your case. Likewise, if you’ve got an attorney who’s not responding to your calls or emails, don’t be afraid to drop them and find a better family law attorney.

Sloppiness

Attorneys are (or should be) all about excellent communication and legal precision: if you’ve got an attorney who sends you sloppy work that’s full of proofreading errors or poorly worded statements, this is a red flag. You also want to watch out for these sorts of errors in any drafted paperwork they send you to sign.

Lack of Prep

When you arrive for a meeting with your attorney, and it feels like they just rolled out of bed and crashed into the room, that’s a red flag. A good attorney should be prepared for every meeting they have with you.

Telling You Only What You Want to Hear

A divorce is usually a compromise. You’re going to have to give a little in order to get the things you really want, and a good attorney will be honest about that. A bad attorney will play on your emotions to get you riled up, urge you to go to litigation when it doesn’t make sense and is likely to cost you a lot of money and offer “pie in the sky” promises about what they’ll be able to do for you.

Quickly Seem Out of Their Depth

A poor attorney may be attempting to gain some experience with family law and using you as a guinea pig. This will often manifest over time. Initially, the attorney may seem like they know what they’re doing, but the deeper things go and the more complicated the case becomes, the more it becomes clear that their understanding of the family law code is surface level at best. If your case is complex, you will quickly discover that they seem confused or are always having to go and check with someone else. This is a red flag that you probably need to move on to someone with a lot more experience.

If you’re looking for a trusted, experienced divorce lawyer in Austin, come see us at the Evans Family Law Group. We are an exclusively family law practice, and we’ve been trusted by the families of Austin ​since 2009.