Our law office is still open for business but my staff and I are almost exclusively working from home. My office was ahead of the game in that we already had our entire practice on the cloud. That makes it very easy to transition to a home office setting and continue to be up and running as if we were…Read More
You should definitely have an in-person consultation with a potential attorney. That’s my standard operating procedure. There are certain subjective qualifications that you are going to get. You can read online about the attorney. How many years have they been in practice? You can also email them and ask about the number of high net worth cases that they have…Read More
There is nothing wrong with taking suggestions from friends and family when hiring a high net worth divorce attorney as long as they’re good suggestions. The questions should remain the same even though a friend or family member suggests an attorney. You have to ask that attorney: Do you specialize in divorce law and family law? What is your caseload…Read More
It starts right at the beginning. An attorney who specializes in high net worth or high-income divorces will have a computerized practice management system (such as Time Matters, Clio, Atticus, etc.) which helps them keep everything on track in terms of their client’s particular case. They’ll have paralegals dedicated to their case that have a relatively low caseload. In my…Read More
For starters, if you don’t have substantial income (well over $100,000) or assets (over $1 million), then you may not be considered a high net worth case. Regarding the assets, you also want to look at whether they are simple or complicated. A typical family may own a house, have retirement assets, have particular investment vehicles, and if it’s not…Read More
Many times clients will ask what resources we are going to utilize in the course of the case. For instance, it’s often helpful to have the services of a forensic accountant in high income support cases. As another example, early in the process of a contested custody case, you should consider hiring a forensic psychological expert to help prepare for…Read More
There are many different reasons why a party should consider a settlement. I usually talk with my clients on just a pure cost benefit analysis but also factoring in what they may be looking to spend in terms of my fees. If I’m representing the more monied spouse, they may be contributing towards the other side’s attorney’s fees as well.…Read More
One of the changes in the tax laws that came about very recently is that one can no longer take a tax deduction for spousal maintenance otherwise known as alimony. Consequently, any money the person now pays in terms of maintenance or child support is no longer deductible to the payor and no longer included as income to the payee.…Read More
This depends principally on whether domestic violence has been an issue in the case or allegations of domestic violence have arisen. If there have been, I usually advise them to limit communication. If there is an order of protection already in place that bars communication, then it’s obvious they can’t have any communication. If that’s not the case then I…Read More
Yes, the parenting plan can affect the amount of child support. This is especially true if the parties have an exact 50/50 split, but even without an exact split it could still affect the amount of support if the non-custodial parent has joint custody and significant access time. The typical non-custodial parent has alternate weekends and a split of holidays.…Read More
