5 Things a Family Lawyer Can Do for You
There’s a growing trend in Pennsylvania and across the country of people trying to handle their family law issues on their own. Find out why you may not want to do your divorce or custody battle yourself, and what a family lawyer can do for you to make your case easier, and help get the outcome you want. Our Delaware County family law attorneys are ready to fight for you.
1. Delaware County Family Law Attorneys Get Your Case Started Right
How to file for divorce in Pennsylvania, or the process for starting a custody case isn’t something you just know. Even the document kits that are available online won’t tell you where to go to file your documents, or who to talk to to get your former spouse or co-parent served according to the court rules. That kind of knowledge only comes with experience working in the local family courts.
We often get clients who have attempted to handle their case themselves, like it was a DIY project; or who used a lawyer less knowledgeable than the circumstances needed. The fees “saved” in those instances are almost always spent in the time and effort needed to undo the mishandling; and the time used up to get the case back to where it should have been cannot be recovered. The better choice is starting your case off right with our experienced family law attorneys.
At Berman & Associates, our experienced Media family law attorneys know our way around the courthouses in Delaware County, Philadelphia County, and Chester County. When you hire our family law team, you know your case will get started right. We’ll work with the court staff to file all the right paperwork, and make sure the other party is properly served, so that your case won’t get delayed or dismissed on a technicality.
2. Family Law Attorneys Help You Build a Plan for Your Future
Getting a divorce is the end of a chapter in your life, but it is also the start of something new. You may be able to handle the paperwork to end your current marriage, but that doesn’t mean you’ll walk away from your divorce with a plan for the future. All too often, when couples get divorced, one or sometimes both spouses find themselves needing to start over. At Berman & Associates, our family law team can help you review your situation and develop a plan for moving forward. This might include:
- Creating an ideal visitation arrangement,
- Developing a household budget based on your income, child support, and alimony payments
- Prioritizing property division for potential settlement
- Working with a financial advisor to plan investment strategies for your retirement assets
We can help you think through what life as a single person -- or single parent -- will look like, and craft proposed settlements that will meet your needs and priorities.
3. PA Family Law Attorneys Get Information You Don’t Have
In many family law cases, one or both spouses or parents are operating based on partial information. You may not know how much money your spouse has in his or her savings account. Maybe you have heard stories about the conditions at your co-parent’s home, but have never been there yourself. Pennsylvania family law attorneys have access to discovery techniques, like:
- Subpoenas for employment records, bank statements, and credit card balances
- Depositions of parties and witnesses
- Private investigation of the other party’s home or social media accounts
- Requests for production of documents
- Demands for production of surveillance video
These discovery strategies will help you get information you don’t have in a form you can take to the judge. This keeps your case from boiling down to he-said/she-said, and guides your family law judge to make the right decision based on evidence, not just feelings.
4. Keeping a Family Law Lawyer Near You Maintains Perspective
On paper, divorce and custody matters can sometimes boil down to paperwork and accounting. For you, it is the end of a relationship, and a lifestyle. Emotions run high in family law cases and it can be easy to get swept up in what the other person did wrong in the past. You may feel the urge to hurt or get back at your spouse. But these kinds of feelings can get in the way of settling your case and increase the chances you won’t get what you want from the judge.
At Berman & Associates, our family law attorneys in Delaware County, PA, provide our clients with a cool head and an emotionally detached perspective on potential settlements and legal arguments. We can help you understand how the judge will apply the law to your situation, and help you set realistic expectations for the outcome of your case. We can help you find a resolution that feels fair, without letting emotion cloud the issue.
5. Media Family Law Attorneys Know the Pennsylvania Family Courts
Sometimes finding the right solution depends on knowing how your particular judge will handle your case. Individual judges and courts have tendencies.
- They may rely on historical generalizations about gender roles making custody cases harder for fathers.
- They might tend to award a dependent spouse money or avoid the sale of real property, which could affect your retirement accounts.
- They may tend to over-emphasize or downplay the effects of domestic violence on spouses and children in the household.
Without the experience of decades working with these judges, you will have no way to know the tendencies of your judge. Our Delaware County family law attorneys are based in Media, PA and have been working in the same courts for decades. We know what to expect of the judges here, and can guide you on whether to settle to avoid their weaknesses, or advocate to their strengths. We welcome you to contact us to schedule an in-person or virtual consultation with a member of our family law team who can help answer your questions and explain what a family lawyer can do for you.
