Lawyers for Custody Battles: 4 Times to Hire an Attorney to Fight for You
Divorce of any sort can be a terribly difficult experience to have to go through. It can be even tougher if there are children involved. Hundreds of thousands of parents go through custody battles each year and these cases can be stressful and painful for all involved.
Many parents going through this process for the first time are unsure of when they need to hire lawyers for custody battles. If a question of custody is at stake, is hiring an attorney always necessary?
Isn’t it possible just to work things out with your soon to be ex-spouse? Maybe, but there are certain instances where hiring an attorney can be advisable, if not absolutely essential.
Read on and we’ll walk you through what you need to know about these particular instances.
1. Your Spouse Has Hired an Attorney
If there’s one tell-tale sign that should push you into immediate action, it’s that your spouse has hired an attorney. This is not an action someone who is willing to ‘talk it out’ with you would do. If your spouse has hired an attorney, it’s likely because they anticipate a fight is ahead and want to put their best foot forward.
The last thing you want to do is put yourself up against a professional attorney when something as important as the custody of your children is at stake.
If you know you’ll be facing legal opposition on the other side of the aisle, the most important thing you can do is to hire your own legal aide. This way, you’ll be much better equipped for the legal battle that is likely to unfold.
2. Your Case is Complicated
Let’s face it: no matter how much Law and Order you’ve watched after coming home from work, you aren’t a real legal expert. Many parents make the mistake of thinking their custody battles will be fairly straightforward.
Some think it is as simple as discussing which days of the week the child wants to stay in one place versus the other. But often, custody cases can get far more complicated than that. If you don’t have an incredibly strict understanding of American law, you could find yourself buried.
It’s easy to lose access to both your child and your finances if you aren’t careful. It’s important during this time to have someone looking out for you that can fight back in the proper fashion. That knows the proper strategies to employ and legal loopholes to look through.
You need a real family law attorney.
With an attorney on your side, you’ll feel much more at peace. They’ll ensure complicated legal paperwork is filed on time, according to deadlines that you’d likely have trouble keeping up with on your own.
They’ll ensure your spouse’s lawyers don’t take advantage of you or attempt to strip you of rights or money that you shouldn’t lose. You’ll have someone on your side to rely on, to ask questions to, and who you can trust when they tell you the facts of the matter.
In a time as difficult as divorce, that’s a service that’s worth its weight in gold.
3. If You Believe Your Children Are at Risk
Sometimes, a marriage comes apart because one of the spouses is physically or emotionally abusive, dangerously irresponsible, or some other serious threat to the wellbeing of the family.
In these instances, it’s understandable to fear for the safety of the children involved. A spouse might want to ensure that their partner gets no access to their children, as this access might very well put the children at great risk.
If this is the situation, getting legal help as quickly as possible can be paramount.
An attorney will be able to help ensure you retain custody of your children, but they’ll be able to do a lot more as well. Early on in the process, they’ll be able to help set up restraining orders so that the person in question is forced to stay away from the children.
They can help to enact a variety of safety procedures and conditions to keep both you and the kids safe from harm.
4. If Your Circumstances Have Changed
Life doesn’t slow down even when we’re going through a divorce. What might have initially been relatively simple can become quite complicated if things in one or both of a couple’s lives change unexpectedly.
If either partner of the divorce comes into a great deal of money, plans to get remarried, or has some other large life change, it might be time to hire an attorney. These changes can dramatically change how divorce proceedings might proceed, and how a judge might come down on major decisions.
Even if you know the possibility of these changes might be coming down the pipeline, it’s a good idea to start talking to a legal professional. Proper preparation can help to mitigate the harm these kinds of changes can bring to a routine divorce proceeding.
If you’ve heard of such changes in your spouses’ life, you may want to consider hiring an attorney as well. These changes may give you a greater right to assets or custody then you would have had previously.
Hiring Lawyers for Custody Battles
If you’re going through a divorce, you probably have a lot of questions about hiring lawyers for custody battles. Divorcing with children is hard, but doing so without the help of an attorney is even harder. If you witness any of the above signs, it might be time to act.
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