The most common error that is committed in a divorce can be its costliest: ending up with the wrong lawyer. While caught in an emotional fog or in the urgency of the situation, couples who are getting a divorce may fail to scrutinize their respective choices for legal representation. If you are working with a deficient attorney, you could be feeling the repercussions for years to come, whether this means losing out on joint child custody, missing the support payments you need, having to make support payments that are too high, or ending up without the house. Even now, your immediate future can be thrown into further chaos, as an incompetent lawyer will spell all manner of headache and additional expenses. If nothing else, it will cost you extra to switch lawyers. It will be worth it, of course, but it would be far better to choose the right divorce lawyer to begin with. Here are some tips that might help you in this vital decision.

First of all, you want to get time on your side as much as possible. The moment a divorce is a very real possibility, you should start consulting with divorce attorneys, interviewing them to see who you want. By the time the flurry of paperwork and emotional stress comes, you will be prepared ahead of time with your selection of attorney. Furthermore, if you can choose your lawyer before your spouse does, all the better. If it is the other way around, your husband's choice of attorney could eliminate a whole firm for you, because a lawyer from that same firm may decide against working with you because of the possible conflict of interest.

Secondly, the internet definitely opens up your options when it comes to finding a good lawyer. Just be sure to work with word of mouth as well; in fact, you might even have a recently divorce friend tell you to work with their ex's lawyer because they were that much better!

While this one is ideal and cannot always be the case, if possible, you might want to think about preferring a lawyer who focuses almost solely on family law. They will be familiar with the judges you will face in court, as well as the other divorce lawyers who could get involved in your case. A lawyer who only has experience in family law will have their skills finely tuned for divorce court and will be aware of the ever-changing laws in your state.

What you definitely cannot go without is asking the right questions of your potential lawyer. At the first consultation, you need to be ready with a list of these questions. You will have your own specific questions, of course, but you definitely want to ask about their experience in family law. More specifically, ask how they go about resolving a case (you want a lawyer who achieves a lot of settlements, who is not overeager to drag your divorce through a heated trial). In fact, ask what percentage of cases they end in a settlement. Then you need to learn specifics about their retainer, and to ask if the unused retainer gets refunded (if the answer to the latter is "no", this could be a red flag). You should also ask how regularly you would see an accounting of the retainer (no less than once a month is the right answer). You should also ask about the rest of the legal team, who from the firm would be involved with your case, and see if you can meet them. Then reflect on this meeting, and realize that you can usually rely on your gut feeling to accurately assess what it would be like to work with this lawyer.

Start finding the right family law attorney, one who can help you and your family achieve the future that you deserve. Call a family law expert today!