Finding an attorney to represent your divorce can be a difficult challenge. To ensure a positive experience during this difficult time, make sure you choose an attorney with skills, support, and personalized attention – they should all come together seamlessly for you!
Approach friends, family members and colleagues for recommendations before conducting your search online reviews and testimonials.
New York State Bar Association
The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary legal association. Its members work towards improving legal profession and society by upholding professional ethics, encouraging excellence in legal practices and advocating for justice as well as providing access to legal services for indigent. The NYSBA’s House of Delegates makes decisions and sets policy within this organization.
Divorce can have lasting consequences on every aspect of a family life, including children, property, and identity. An experienced New York Divorce Lawyer can help minimize both emotional and financial repercussions from divorce proceedings.
Lawyers can assist in every stage of the divorce process, from determining eligibility to filing with county Supreme Court and preparing paperwork and fulfilling requirements – such as declaring under oath that their marriage has irretrievably broken down or they have lived apart for at least six months – all necessary steps must be completed correctly for filing for divorce.
Legal Aid Society
Established in 1876, Legal Aid Society provides free legal assistance to low-income people who cannot afford private lawyers. Their services include uncontested and contested divorce, mediation, prenuptial agreements and family law assistance services as well as indigent criminal defendant defense, child advocacy support services and major class action litigation cases.
If you and your spouse can agree on all aspects of the divorce, an uncontested one might be more appropriate for both time and cost considerations, yet still difficult.
A contested divorce occurs when both you and your spouse disagree on various aspects of your divorce settlement, such as division of assets, alimony payments, child custody arrangements or debt responsibility. To get a contested divorce proceeding underway, first publish a notice of your intention to divorce; next your spouse must be served with said notice before final judgment can be issued against them for legal separation or divorce proceedings to commence. It can be very emotionally draining.
Referrals
If your clients require help with divorce and family-related matters, mediation may provide an ideal alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process to assist with them. Mediation services offer many different kinds of solutions including divorce mediation, collaborative law arrangements, negotiation or even conflict management services.
As soon as your clients can shift from litigation towards mediation, the sooner it will be beneficial to their emotional health, well-being, and that of their children. Mediation also tends to cost less both financially and in terms of life energy expended compared to traditional litigation processes.
Reach out to the court where your client’s case has been filed to request a divorce or custody/visitation mediation program referral. Most courts offer alternative dispute resolution (ADR) coordinators that can refer cases on a fee-for-service basis – New York City Family Court Custody/Visitation Mediation Program provides free initial sessions to qualifying couples; subsequent follow up sessions can be purchased at discounted rates. Also check local community-based ADR programs and professional dispute resolution associations for help in this regard.
Super Lawyers
Norton Rose Fulbright is pleased to announce that 31 attorneys have been recognized as 2023 Super Lawyers and New York Metro Rising Stars. The selection process for Super Lawyers involves peer nomination, independent research and practice area evaluation – only five percent of lawyers in each state are chosen each year! Rising Stars represent promising young attorneys aged 40 or younger that were chosen through an exclusive selection process.
A contested divorce occurs when there are differences between you and your partner on one or more issues in your marriage, leading to protracted, more expensive, and emotionally taxing proceedings than uncontested ones. At court hearings regarding such divorce proceedings, they either approve your Stipulation of Settlement agreement or conduct trials and decide the terms of divorce for both of you.
