More Than a Divorce Lawyer: Why Hire a Family Law Attorney?

Are you wanting to make your divorce easier on your family?

Hiring a family law attorney will serve as a crucial aspect in making sure your divorce goes as well as it can. A family law lawyer will use their expertise to help you protect your interests and settle things with your former partner. This enables you to move forward with living your life.

Having a family law attorney will also help you get through some of the more difficult aspects of a divorce.

Below, we’ll get into some of the benefits of having a family law attorney. Keep reading to learn more about how a family lawyer can help you!

What Does a Family Law Attorney Do?

A family law attorney handles legal cases related to families. They work under the civil law sector, helping their clients protect their interests when legal issues crop up between family members.

There isn’t a difference between a divorce lawyer vs family law attorney. Divorce attorneys are simply family law attorneys who offer divorce as one of their services.

But family law lawyers don’t only practice divorce. Their services include child support, child custody, and spousal support, too. Since these services often go hand-in-hand with divorce proceedings, family law attorneys are useful to have.

You’ll Have Someone Looking After Your Interests

It’s possible to get a divorce without hiring an attorney. However, this can get really risky. If you and your spouse disagree about the aspects of the divorce, you need to hire a lawyer.

This is especially true if your spouse brings in an attorney for their side of the case. This indicates that they’re wanting to make sure that everything goes their way during the divorce. If you want to protect your own interests, you should get your own family law lawyer.

You Won’t Lose as Many of Your Assets

One of the most complicated aspects of a divorce boils down to negotiating who gets which assets. In general, the longer a couple has been married, the more shared assets they’ll have. Often, attorneys work for divorcing couples who are concerned about their ability to keep their house, their car, etc. 

If you don’t hire an attorney, you stand a greater risk of losing these items.

Many people end up parting with at least some of their assets. Yet, your family law attorney works within the legal structure to help you safeguard as many of your assets as you can.

You’ll Get Better Spousal Support Agreements

Spousal support is now one of the most common legal terms for alimony.

It came about in recognition of the fact that spouses often lose a significant amount of their income when they divorce. Usually, one spouse makes more than the other spouse. This means one person may struggle more than the other after the separation.

As such, a court often orders the more financially stable spouse to provide regular payments to their ex-partner. These payments last until the spouse lives with another adult or gets remarried. Spousal support can also get canceled if the other spouse fails to take the necessary steps to establish themselves as an independent individual. 

Determining the amount of spousal support can become a long and complicated process. In fact, it often serves as a central issue in many divorces. If you’re the wealthier spouse, you’ll want to make sure the payments remain affordable for you. If you’re the spouse receiving the support, you’ll want to take as much as you can get.

A lawyer can help you negotiate the proper amount.

You’ll File Your Paperwork in a Correct Manner

Legal proceedings often get confusing for people who don’t work in the legal field. Your divorce paperwork might contain words you find difficult to understand. It also needs to get filed in a particular way.

A family law attorney can help you file your paperwork in the correct manner. They’ll use their familiarity with the court system to tell you what needs to get done when. They can also explain any legal terms with which you’re unfamiliar.

This saves you the stress and pain of having to do things over.

Your Custody Agreements Will Go Smoother

If you and your spouse have kids, you’ll need to settle on a custody arrangement. 

Courts prioritize the well-being of a child when considering custody agreements. The person who has primary custody needs to have the ability to provide a stable and safe home for the child. In general, it’s considered best to keep both parents in the lives of their children.

However, parents can attempt to get sole custody. They can also try to prevent the other parent from seeing their children if they claim the other spouse is abusive. 

So, you should always have a family law lawyer on your side when negotiating custody. This will help you ensure you get to see your children as often as possible. Good custody arrangements also make divorces easier for kids in the long run.

Ready to Hire a Family Law Attorney?

The right family law attorney will stick by your side throughout your divorce and fight for the future you want for yourself and your family.

But your ability to get what you want out of your divorce will come down to your lawyer’s experience and skill. That’s where we come in. The Olivero Law firm has years of experience protecting the interests of clients like you.

If you’re going through a divorce, contact us today to see how we can help!