Fathers’ rights attorneys promise to aggressively fight for their clients. Show me a client who doesn’t want zealous representation. But what do these fathers’ rights lawyers offer that any competent lawyer doesn’t also offer? In our experience, they offer some significant risks to their clients.
Failure to Counsel
Lawyers own a duty to counsel clients about legal issues in their cases. Thus, lawyers should advise their clients on the risks and rewards of potential legal strategies. However, fathers’ rights lawyers are limited in the strategies they can offer their clients. After all, they promised to be aggressive. They promised to be tough. Winning at all costs is part of the deal. As a result, low-conflict options are ignored.
Consequently, fathers’ rights lawyers may not counsel their clients as to the risks involved in a strategy. Being aggressive means fighting over everything. Being tough means forcing hearing in court rather than negotiating a settlement. Fathers’ rights lawyers’ reputations depend on their desire to fight. Therefore, they fight.
Except, losing is always an option in court. At Youngblood Law, PLLC, we never fear going to court for our clients. However, before choosing a risky contested hearing, we do our best to win for our client in a negotiation. We communicate with our clients about options, risks, and possible rewards. Additionally, we counsel our clients regarding short-term and long-term risks of hearings versus options in negotiations. Because we don’t promise a single strategy, we are free to use every option for our clients.
Increased Cost
Hearings cost money. As a rule, lawyers bill clients for the total time spent at the courthouse. The time spent before the judge is just part of that time. Commonly in Tarrant County we spend two or more hours at the courthouse for each hearing. This is true even when the actual time before the judge is only a few minutes. Things just move slowly in the courthouse. Still, these hours of billable time cost clients money.
Fathers’ rights attorneys need to go to court to show their clients how aggressive they are. Litigating every issue is a requirement for these lawyers. Their clients are paying for their tough guy act, and they must perform. Unfortunately, performing in court drives up the cost of a case. Of course each court hearing also requires preparation. Thus the client gets billed for the preparation AND the actual hearing.
Another hidden risk of frequent litigation is the need for expert witnesses. Counselors, CPAs, medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and drug testing personnel are experts frequently appearing in hotly contested cases. These witnesses cost money too. Drug testing professionals may charge $200 per hour for their service as a witness. Psychiatrists can charge $2000 on half-day increments. Fathers’ rights attorneys who must litigate for their clients often bring in these expensive witnesses.
At Youngblood Law, PLLC, we work to settle matters without the need for hearings. Negotiating with the opposing lawyer often achieves the same result that would have been achieved in court. However, a few emails and a signed agreement are much cheaper than a hearing. That’s why we prefer to avoid hearings over trivial issues.
Client Focused Strategies
At Youngblood Law, PLLC, we employ a team approach to constantly assess our client matters. Our lawyers war game cases to identify options for our clients. consequently we can counsel our clients about the risks and rewards of our strategies and tactics. Because Youngblood Law, PLLC isn’t a tough-guy fathers’ rights firm, we can advise our clients of all available options.
We know that we would make more revenue per client by driving up conflict in our cases. Likewise, we would make more money per client if we chose to litigate every issue. Instead, we remain dedicated to our Divorce Innovation philosophy. We believe there is a better way to get a divorce that is low-conflict. Our methods help avoid risk while getting our clients more of what they want through skillful negotiation.
When we deal with fathers’ rights lawyers, we know their tactics. We prepare for them. We constantly refine our strategies for dealing with them. As always, our efforts are focused on our philosophy rather than being driven by the other side’s marketing hype. We seek opportunities to short circuit the fathers’ rights lawyers’ plans and achieve our clients’ goals.
Our Firm
Youngblood Law, PLLC is a Fort Worth, Texas law firm dedicated to family law. We help working people through divorce so they can start their new happily ever after. We also proudly offer the collaborative divorce process for our clients. This essay is intended for educational use only and is not a replacement for competent legal counsel. If you are facing a family law matter, we recommend obtaining competent legal counsel like Youngblood Law, PLLC. For more information, contact us at (817) 601-5345, find us on the web at youngblood-law.com.
Paul Youngblood #beforeyournext #lawfw #youngbloodlaw #collaborativedivorce #beingdivorceddoesntsuck