Lawyer Weary

In the San Francisco Bay Area It is in no way unusual to have a situation where a couple who had been battling in court for many months turn to a divorce mediator seeking a fresh perspective on family law in San Francisco. They indicate that they are fed up with the family law lawyers they had been using and are interested in discovering options to continuing to engage the run-of-the mill San Francisco family law attorney.

They state that they had initially been “lawyer wary” when the process began but now they were also “lawyer weary”.

Their experience was that they felt they were paying two family law lawyers to argue over matters that, if left to their own devices, they could have settled in a short conversation. They felt as if they were being guided to an ever escalating battle that only served to keep their legal bills high and continually danced around the few important issues they need to resolve. They couldn’t understand how it could cost so much money to engage in “discovery” when they each had a clear idea on all the information being “discovered”. They each said all they were looking for was a reasonable offer from the other side to consider and act upon. They each said that they just could not seem to get their lawyer to make such an offer.

It might have be funny if it wasn’t so common and tragic.

In any family, there is only so much money to go around. There will be considerably less when each party spends over $35,000 in unnecessary legal fees. Before family law lawyers begin their battle the parties should consider the possibility of ending their marriage through mediation, without a court battle.

After parties are enlightened to the fact that marital mediation can take care of all the issues in their divorce and get a Judgment of Dissolution for less than 1/5 the money either of them will spend, there is a palpable relief.
It is best to begin with a mediated approach to ending your marriage, but even if you are far into the process of litigation, it is never too late to reverse course and take the faster, cheaper better alternative to a lawsuit.

David D. Stein has been an attorney for 20 years San Francisco Divorce lawyerand the founder of Liaise® Divorce Solutions. He is a trained Divorce mediator, dispute resolution specialist and lecturer on non-violent conflict management techniques and tools.