What Your Family Law Attorney Wants You to Know
If you’ve never been involved in a lawsuit before, you may not realize how your behavior as a client can affect the outcome of your case. There are things that you as a client can do to improve your prospects of success and even lower the amount you’ll owe in attorneys’ fees. Below, learn about ways that you can help your chances of obtaining an optimal result in your Texas family law case while also keeping your attorneys’ fees down, and contact an experienced Houston family law attorney with any additional questions.
1. There are no bad questions
Your lawyer wants you to understand the legal process, the status of your case, and your role in moving your case forward. If you have a question about your case, don’t worry about whether it’s a “smart” question—go ahead and ask! Keep in mind that your attorney can probably answer your questions more quickly –thus saving you money—if you keep a running list of questions you want to ask your lawyer, and send these emails once or twice each week, rather than each time you have a question.
2. Retain correspondence
Always keep emails or notes from phone calls with your attorney. This way, you can refer back to this information at a later time in case you forget the answer. Asking the same questions repeatedly will result in your attorney spending more time (and you spending more money) on the same issues.
3. Make sure to respond to document requests–they’re for a good reason
You may not understand why your lawyer needs quite so many documents, or whether you really have to dig through all your records to find old bank statements or tax returns. Your lawyer wouldn’t ask for anything that wasn’t very important to your case, so trust the process and comply with any document requests you get from your lawyer (or explain why you can’t). By delaying your response to these requests, you may well be preventing your case from moving forward. Always submit documents to your attorney as PDFs to save even more of your lawyer’s time. There are many free apps available for smartphones that will turn a photo of a document into a PDF.
4. Your attorney always has your best interests in mind, so follow her advice
Sometimes, your lawyer’s advice may seem hard to follow or counterintuitive, but make every effort to comply with your lawyer’s suggested course of action. There’s a reason you’ve hired an attorney to represent you in your case—you know that you’re not trained in Texas family law, and you want someone on your side who is. Your lawyer has spent years studying and practicing in the field. They have nothing to gain by giving you bad advice, and in fact have a vested interest in seeing your case succeed. By ignoring your lawyer’s advice, you risk doing damage to your case, or even harming your claim’s chances of success.
If you’re in need of a talented, knowledgeable, and compassionate attorney for your Texas divorce, contact the Houston family law attorney Maria Lowry at 713-850-8859.
