1. Consulting Services In Selecting Legal Representation
All to many times a lawyer is selected on the advise of a friend or a family member, but very little is done to ascertain important facts. It's hard to know who to turn to when you need the help of a Family Law Attorney. I routinely interview several highly qualified attorney's that are within a clients local jurisdiction. In my search for the best attorney, I explore their experience in cases involving Parental Alienation and Parental Alienation Syndrome. During the course of my interviews with each attorney, I also investigate the conflict of interest issues.
I carefully go over the Retainer Agreement and I've never seen one that didn't need some kind of modification. It's also extremely important for a client to have a clause that requires their lawyer to first obtain their written consent before the filing of any motion and before blanket agreements with opposing counsel. While a few attorney's are rigidly against any kind of modifications, it's the first real test of lawyer-client compatibility.
It's essential to trust your attorney but it's equally important for the client to know and understand exactly what's happening in their case. There are other times when an attorney needs authority to agree with opposing counsel without a need for the client's written approval (and to save the client money ), and then again there are good reasons for a client to understand exceptions.
My experience has always been a positive one when working out the fine points with a Family Law Attorney. Establishing a better understanding from the beginning, also puts in place a team effort that's necessary for a winning strategy to emerge in the case.
I know from a lot of experience that prior to retaining an attorney client's don't know what to get in writing, and they'd prefer to avoid those issues. A new client doesn't want to risk offending or losing a lawyers representation. That's why it makes more sense for a consultant to work out the details.
The selection of a lawyer is a complex issue. Hourly rates vary and billing statements might be hard to audit. Some services may be needed or may need to be clarified or incorporated into the retainer agreement. It's also time consuming and the client might not be in the best state of mind to navigate through these issues. Fees might be charged to a client before an agreement is signed and important issues about representation may not be explained to a client or discussed at all.
Termination of an attorney can include additional expenses that may not be known and the process of obtaining a new attorney will begin the cycle all over again. It's not at all uncommon to hear that a client has been represented by two or more attorney's during a course of litigation. The traveling time to represent a client in court could also add hidden costs not initially understood by the client.
For these reasons, my services are an instant benefit to the clients I work with.
2. Consulting Services For Psychological Evaluations & Medical Providers
In high conflict divorce litigation, the service of a Psychologist is often employed. A Judge might decide to order a child to see a therapist. It might also be necessary to find a psychiatrist or other kinds of mental health professionals.
Some cases involve children and custody evaluations. The court has a list of doctors that can be called upon but they may not be the most qualified for an evaluation. Some Ph.D.'s have never even heard of Parental Alienation Syndrome and for this reason it's necessary to file a motion for the selection of a Forensic Psychologist. If you have a child suffering from P.A.S. you're going to need a medical expert familiar with this condition.
The process of selecting a doctor for any case involving Parental Alienation, is complex. It's important to study the CV, their experience in court, the recommendations they've made in similar cases, availability, testimony skills and how often a Judge accepts their recommendations, even cost considerations need to be taken into account.
The selection of a forensic psychologist or medical provider is frequently determined by an attorney, but an attorney will not be able to provide their clients with comprehensive due diligence. The main reason is simple to understand. If your attorney charged you $300.00 an hr ( to due his due diligence ), it would be equal to or in excess of, the fee the Ph.D. charges.
That's why most attorney's just refer your case to someone they know whether or not they're best suited for the job.
There are cases when a court appointed medical expert may provide an opinion that does not go in favor of a client and in order to modify a court order it becomes necessary to get another medical expert to help the court to see the defects in an evaluation. All to often, I have learned that a clients attorney never informed them that this final effort can result in winning back their case and at reasonable litigation expenses.
My consulting in cases of Parental Alienation, will frequently include interviews with several forensic doctors in the client's local jurisdiction. I explore their expertise. I review their CV's, the recommendations that they've made in similar cases, and I confer with the client's attorney on the availability of no less than two choices. Client's, will not know the important questions that need to be asked, nor should the client, rely on their attorney to do the due diligence of a forensic psychologist or PAS therapist. When you select the wrong psychological evaluator or Therapist for treatment, its extremely detrimental to the case.
3. Consulting Services To Reduce Litigation Expenses
Prior to retaining an attorney, it's critical to have an understanding of billing procedures, terms for payment and the financial obligations. If you don't negotiate a modification of terms prior to signing an agreement there will be lost opportunities to reduce the litigation expense. One way to reduce the cost of litigation is to outsource some litigation services. For example, process serving or paralegal assistance. I work with a network of professionals that I can refer. Many of the lawyers I talk to don't object to some of these options.
In addition, my bill auditing can uncover frequent oversights that law firms make and I can suggest communication procedures that lower attorney interactions and expense.
Not all lawyers recommend email communication to reduce fees, and some lawyers want to confer with attorney's that they work with, I dare say just to increase their billing. I think it is important for your attorney to try to do what they can to try and keep the cost down.
Often times the opposing side is in a better financial situation than you and although it is improper to use an attorney to try and run the other side out of money, it happens all to often. Is your attorney going to be there for you when you run out of money ? Don't count on it. Frivolous litigation leads to people having to represent themselves pro se.
Before a Psychologist starts an evaluation, many documents can be organized in a way to lower the time to review them, and doing so, will reduce expenses for the client. I can help the client by labeling various medical exhibits, highlighting relevant wording, making copies, or duplicate sets of printed information and even provide document retrieval of court records.
My services would also include drafting letters to obtain medical records, hospital records, school medical records and advise to the client on how to use existing court orders to obtain this information quickly. These services, will benefit the client in streamlining the material and saving costs that add up significantly when not efficiently managed.
In order for a treating medical provider to assist a child, or the child and parent seeking Joint Therapy, all the data that can be collected to help the doctor are important to speeding up the emotional relief being sought by the client.
It's also possible that a client's attorney might need to depose a therapist or obtain a court order for another medical opinion. The attorney may need duplicate copies of information and it would be costly if your attorney has to spend some of their time doing additional work retrieving this documentation.
4. Consulting Services in Parental Alienation, Custody and Visitation
In cases involving Parental Alienation/Parental Alienation Syndrome I review the entire case starting with an interview with the client. I do a complete read of the court orders, depositions, any special email communications, police reports, any abuse reports and if applicable, DCF reports, motions filed, available medical records and any and all other information.
I help a client to organize material for motions, for interviews with medical experts and I liaison with the attorney in the case on the litigation issues. My time is devoted to helping a client better communicate with their spouse during the litigation process. Also, how the client can interact with their children in a constructive way that will support the litigation.
Parents in PA and PAS cases are often the targets of false allegations against them. They frequently find themselves embroiled in situations with the Police, the CPS ( or DCF ), it's not uncommon for them to have been arrested for a false allegation or an attempt against them that was planned and staged with the cooperation of their own children. Restraining Orders also creep into these cases making it frustrating for the parent; and the client may not believe that the other side is willing to go that far, just to deny them their visitations.
With my help, many of these situations can be avoided. The client needs a Family Law Consultant, just to protect them from their own naivety before it adversely affects them.
Some states make it difficult to argue over the legal merits of P.A.S. Compounding this problem is the fact that DSM does not currently list P.A.S. as a medical diagnosis. In addition, the America Psychological Association does not take a position on any types of diagnosis, which all makes it very difficult to validate PA.S. in court.
NOW ( The National Organization of Women ), has entered the debate by trying to market that PAS is a male gender legal defense for men that abuse women. NOW, has politicized PAS, ignoring the statistics that women suffer in equal proportions and of course lawyers have taken advantage of the confusion by calling PAS nothing more than junk science. Fortunately, research pioneers are able to debunk the detractors and it is hoped that DSM will recognize PAS in its next edition.
Legal strategies designed to prove PAS might be better off pointing out the evidence for PA and arguing the necessity to extinguish the problem through therapy with PAS Therapists. Most lawyers would agree with this strategy.
In any case, my services are entirely based on the belief that PAS is a scientific reality and time will prove that to be evident. In the meantime, there are lots of believers out there. I know that a fair number of them are Judges, so don't think that they're all bad.
