754 - Which One of Us Should Be the Client?

As you know by now, if you and your spouse are using me for an uncontested divorce, one of you will be my client and one of you will not. I think there are four things you should think about in deciding which of you should be my client.

First, whoever is my client will be the plaintiff in the divorce. That means that the one who is my client will be the one who is asking for the divorce, at least in a legal sense. That may be reason enough for one of you, if you say, for example, "I have no intention of asking for a divorce. If anybody is going to ask for a divorce, I want it to be my spouse."

Second, in a typical divorce, one of you is the leaver, the one who as advocating divorce, and one of you is the left, that is coming reluctantly to divorce. The leaver is more likely to have been grieving over the marriage for an extended period of time and to be focused on financial and other issues in negotiations. The left, on the other hand, may be still reeling from the emotional shock of divorce and may be less prepared to negotiate. For that reason, the left may need representation more than the leaver.

Third, one of you may be more financially savvy than the other. That is one of you may know more about how taxes work, about the time value of money, and about how to value assets. To the extent this is the case, the one who is less financially savvy may have a greater need to be represented.

Finally, one of you may be thinking about filing for bankruptcy after the divorce is effective. If that's the case, the one who is NOT planning to file may have a greater need to be represented, because there are some things we can do to keep you from getting sucked into the bankruptcy down the road.

There's a separate message number 755, called "How much will uncontested divorce cost?"

Alabama Family Law Center serves clients who need to get through divorce and who are able to be reasonably cooperative. The goal is for both spouses to survive divorce and move on with their lives with some money in their pockets and their dignity intact.

No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.

If you'd like to make an appointment with me, the fastest way to reach me is to send me an e-mail.