Questions to Ask Divorce Attorne

1. Questions to Ask Your Divorce Attorney
1. Is family law your specialty?
2. Do you practice other types of law?
3. What is your style when working a divorce case? Do you consider yourself a
hawk or a dove?
4. How might both approaches be helpful?
5. Do you feel comfortable working contentious divorces?
6. Are you ok with a more peaceful approach?
7. Do you practice cooperative or collaborative divorce?
8. Do you work with mediators?
9. Do you recommend working with other professionals such as a financial
advisor, business valuator, forensic accountant or therapist if needed?
10. Do you believe you have full knowledge over all the financial (real estate,
retirement and pensions, bankruptcy, social security, etc) and tax aspects to
prevent me from being short-changed now or having future problems?
11. Can you provide long range forecasts of what my future will look like with
each proposal?
12. How long have your been practicing in your field?
13. How often do your cases end up in court?
14. What % of your cases settled out of court?
15. How many times have you won in court?
16. Has my spouse consulted with or retained anyone in this firm?
17. Are you familiar with my spouse’s attorney?
18. Are you on good terms with him/her?
19. Do you know the judges in my county who might preside over my case?
20. Have you had good or bad experiences with him/her?
21. How do the judges in my county tend to rule in situations like mine?
22. What do you think my chances are for spousal support? How long? How
much?
23. Do you think I might have to pay spousal support? 928-533-6593

2. Questions to Ask Your Divorce Attorney
24. What should I reasonably expect in the way of child custody and support?
25. What is your hourly rate?
26. How do you bill? Six, ten, or fifteen minute increments?
27. What is your required retainer fee to start work on my case?
28. Is it refundable if not used?
29. Do you send regular itemized invoices to show how the retainer is being spent
and how much of the retainer is still available?
30. Will you continue working on my case if the retainer has not been quickly
replenished?
31. When replenishing the retainer, do you allow partial payments or do you
require another full retainer to continue work?
32. May I have a copy to review of your retainer agreement and letter of
engagement or any other contract like documents you use in your practice?
33. Under what circumstances can the attorney-client relationship be terminated
and what is your process to do so should it become necessary?
34. Will I be given a copy of my file and any unused portion of my retainer if we
terminate our relationship before my divorce if finalized?
35. Do your fees cover other matters that may come up in my divorce such as
financial analysis, mediation, psychological assessments, or a child specialist?
36. If not, can you refer me to those types of professionals as needed?
37. Are you willing to you other professionals directly in order to keep my
information privileged and protected in the discovery process?
38. How many clients are you currently working with?
39. Will I be working with other attorneys in your office?
40. What if they aren’t a good fit for me?
41. If I work with your assistant or paralegal are the fees less?
42. Do you charge for phone calls and/or emails?
43. What kinds of costs can I expect if we need to go to court?
44. Do you think my case will have to go to court?
45. Can my spouse be made to pay all or a portion of my attorneys fees, financial
advisor fees and court costs?
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