What to Look for in a New Jersey Divorce Attorney

Making the decision to end your marriage is one of the most difficult challenges you may face during the course of your lifetime. If you find yourself in this situation, you may now find yourself wondering what to look for in a New Jersey divorce attorney. There are a number of factors to bear in mind as you consider retaining legal counsel to represent you in your New Jersey marriage dissolution case.

• Experience
• Firm structure
• Fees and payment scheme
• Rapport with legal counsel
• Client caseload

On some level, it should go without saying that you want an experienced divorce attorney. With that said, you need to take the examination of the experience of prospective legal counsel a step further. You need to ascertain whether or not a particular New Jersey divorce lawyer has a suitable background in representing clients in marriage dissolution matters that have a similarity to your own. For example, if you are heading into or already involved in a high-asset divorce, you need to make sure that an attorney you consider retaining has specific experience in representing clients in these types of marriage dissolution cases.

When you are seeking a New Jersey divorce lawyer, you also need to consider firm structure. By this it is meant that the setup of a particular law firm does have at least some impact on the manner in which you will be represented in divorce proceedings. For example, an element of firm structure that you will want to explore is who on the team will be your primary point of contact regarding your case. Will it be the attorney his or herself? Or will it be a legal assistant or someone else on the firm staff?

One area in which attorneys and clients do fall into conflict is in regard to fees and costs. You lessen the odds that you might end up in conflict with a lawyer over legal fees and costs if you fully understand the fees and payment scheme before you retain a New Jersey lawyer.

Not only do you want to make certain that you understand a fee arrangement, but you need to have such an agreement committed to writing, Moreover, you want to take time to closely review any contract for services or fees provided to you from a potential lawyer.

You will be in contact with your divorce lawyer for what may prove to be a relatively significant amount of time. No matter the extent of time you may spend with legal counsel, you need to enter a professional relationship with an understanding that you do have a good rapport with a particular lawyer.

When examining the possibility of hiring a particular lawyer, you should ascertain the state of an attorney’s caseload. This part of the attorney screening process is something of an exercise in weighing and balancing. In the final analysis, you do not want an attorney that has such a large caseload that he or she cannot make proper time for you.

As part of evaluating a prospective New Jersey divorce attorney you will want to take full advantage of an initial consultation with a marriage dissolution lawyer like a member of the legal team at the Law Offices of Peter Van Aulen. You can reach the firm by calling 201-845-7400.