May 6, 2025 • 42 mins
Heading into a divorce or custody case? The questions you ask before hiring a family lawyer might be the most significant decisions you'll make throughout the entire process. In this episode, Hunt Law Firm attorneys Alex Hunt and David Adams reveal the essential questions that can save you thousands in legal fees and months of unnecessary stress.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi and welcome back to the Texas Family Lawyer
Podcast.
I'm Alex Hunt, managingattorney at Hunt Law Firm,
serving the greater Houston area, and today I'm joined by David
C Adams.
He is a senior associateattorney at Hunt Law Firm and he
(00:22):
is the lead attorney at ourLeague City office.
Welcome, david Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
David, we're going to jump right into it.
We had part one of this serieswhere we talked about how to
choose the right divorce lawyer,and so if you are watching this
on YouTube, you can go back afew months and you can find it.
I'll also link it in thedescription.
Today is part two.
We're going to talk about thequestions that you should ask in
your initial consultation fordivorce.
(00:49):
Number one is the questionsthat you need to ask yourself
before you even step foot intothe initial consultation.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Exactly Some of the most important questions, I
think, are probably thequestions you ask yourself
before you even get to theconsultation.
You know, most of the time, thecases that we work be it
divorce or child custody casesyou know they're going to.
Typically they're going toinvolve children.
I think one really importantquestion to ask yourself is how
(01:19):
much do you want to involve yourchildren in the litigation?
I often meet with clients orpotential clients who will say
you know, I don't want my kidsinvolved at all.
And then I'll probably an almostequal number will encounter
clients or potential clients whowill say I want my child
involved, in the sense that Iwant them to have a voice.
(01:40):
I want their opinion on, say,this child custody issue to be
heard.
I want the judge to know whatit is that they want.
And so I think it's a veryimportant question before you
ever go meet with a lawyer howmuch do you potentially want
your child to be involved inthat litigation and how much of
it is necessary, so that thatway, when you go and meet with a
lawyer, you can have an honestconversation with them about how
(02:02):
could we do that, what's thebest way to do that, what's the
most appropriate thing in thoseterms?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And I also think what are you looking to get out of
the process?
We talked about this in thelast one.
I think the word you used wasretribution.
Are you looking for retribution?
Are you looking for this to bepainful for the other side?
Are you looking for a bulldogor a shark Somebody though that
might, when they're or a shark,somebody though that might, when
(02:28):
they're being a bulldog.
They might also drive up costs.
They might make things morecontentious.
Is that what you're looking for?
Or are you looking for somebodythat is going to be solutions
oriented and is going to try tofind that path of least
resistance, the person that'sgoing to try to find solutions
for you?
And the background is alsohaving concurrent planning of if
(02:49):
we have to go to court.
Damn sure I'm going to be readyfor it.
You want to ask yourself whatdo I need to get out of this
process and how should that playinto the search for my lawyer?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's exactly right.
I think it's a great frameworkquestion to think about.
Do I want answers?
You know I meet with a lot ofclients, especially in divorce
cases, where they feel liketheir marriage has fallen apart
and I think they kind of justwant to know why.
Now, that's not always aquestion that I can answer for
(03:24):
them, um, and oftentimeslitigation won't necessarily do
that.
But if the question is where'smy spouse been spending all of
our money, I might be able toanswer that, but that's going to
involve the discovery processand financial documents and
possibly subpoenas.
Sometimes, you know people,people, people come in and what
(03:44):
they want is they just want itto be over with.
Right, they want to.
They want important thingBecause, as your potential
lawyer, when you tell me thingslike that, like, look, I want to
(04:11):
try to get this over as quicklyas possible.
I want to try to figure out asmany solutions as quickly as we
can and I can lay out theoptions for you how we might be
able to best achieve that.
Similarly, if you come in andyou say, look, here are some
things that have happened, I'mnot really sure what's going on.
I want to know it's importantto me or it's important to my
kids that I can lay out someoptions for you about the path
(04:33):
that we need to take to try todo that and do that as quickly
as possible.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, when you're in that introspective mode, I think
it's important to also look atyour finances and say how much
am I able to, how much am Iwilling to spend on this process
?
Folks that don't have a lot ofmoney or folks that have limited
resources they deserve to haveexcellent representation too.
They deserve to have somebodywho's fighting for them.
(04:56):
It just might mean that there'sgoing to be some of those
options that might be availableto folks that have unlimited
resources.
Some of those things might bemore limited for them, but it
doesn't mean that they don't getto have an excellent attorney,
and so they need to have an ideabefore they set foot in the
initial consultation of what amI looking for out of my lawyer?
(05:17):
Am I looking for somebody who'sgoing to go all out, is not
going to run things by me,that's going to take every
liberty, go into every account,look at every transaction, is
going to put things into aspread, is going to waste no
time and is going to spend everydollar I have?
(05:39):
Am I looking for somebody who'sgoing to be a little bit more
affordable and that will allowme to guide the process as the
client?
That's what I think most folksshould be looking for Somebody
who's solutions oriented and isgoing to have somebody who is
guiding them, but the client'sstill driving the bus.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
That's absolutely right and you know.
You just brought up theexamples of financials and
spreadsheets, and you know whenwe, when we're doing a divorce,
potentially all of that canmatter.
Is it possible that your spousemight have spent some money
that they shouldn't have spentand that if we dig through
thousands and thousands of pagesof financial documents, we
(06:16):
might find it?
Perhaps, but it's also possible.
Well, it's definite that we'regoing to spend many attorney
hours digging through thosefinancial documents to maybe
find something, or maybe to not.
You know, honestly, in morecases than not, that I work.
I think people are suspiciousof each other when they come to
(06:38):
the table at the divorce process.
I think what they end upfinding out is that oftentimes
things aren't quite as bad asthey think that they are, or the
other person isn't quite asnefarious as they want to
believe, and so they're justspending money on what most
people would probably say arenormal things like eating out
(06:58):
and going to the movies andmaybe shopping for clothes, and
so a lot of times we can spend alot of money finding out that
there's not that much really tosee there, and so it is to your
point.
It is really important to thinkabout some of those things and
the costs that are associatedwith looking into some of those
things and whether or not that'sreally worth it for you.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And there's the financial cost, and folks need
to look inside themselves andfigure out what am I able to do.
They need to look at theirfinances, but there's also the
emotional cost, and not only onthem but on their kids as well.
And so, putting aside theproperty piece, when you're
looking at kid issues, who'sgoing to get primary custody of
(07:41):
the child or children?
Do I want this fight or am Iwilling to be a little bit more
flexible?
Those are really importantquestions because the stress
that litigation can have on youI don't just mean sitting inside
the courtroom, I mean theprotracted process from start to
(08:03):
finish.
When you file your petition, youget your spouse served all the
way until the end of the case,when the judge is giving you a
verdict and everything inbetween, which might mean an
amicus attorney is appointed,which is a third party attorney
that's going to tell the courtwhat they think is in the best
interest of that child.
That's going to be somebody whomeets your child.
(08:24):
It might be an in-chambersinterview with your child and
the judge and in some limitedcases we've seen this more
lately, there's actually beencourt cases where the children
have actually you know, olderchildren typically have been
testifying in court?
What are you willing to take onemotionally and are you finding
(08:46):
the right lawyer that can helpguide you through that process?
Not only legally and I don'tmean you're looking for a lawyer
that also has a side hustle asa therapist.
I mean somebody that's going toguide you with compassion and
understands that there's notonly legal consequences for
every action, but that you're areal person and that it has
effects on you.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
That's absolutely right.
Everything that you just saidis right, and I would, maybe
just while we're not therapists.
I think, that any decent familylawyer, trial attorney in family
law would not be doing theirjob if they didn't try as best
they could, based on theirexperience watching people and
(09:28):
children and families go throughthis process, to say, hey, you
got to understand.
This is a big deal.
It's going to be a big deal foryou.
It's definitely going to be abig deal for your kids.
It's probably going to be a bigdeal for your spouse.
You know you said earlier abouthow these this can last over.
You know, not just one day incourt, but it can last over
months, sometimes these caseslast years.
(09:49):
It is not a sprint, it is amarathon.
Do you really want to gothrough the emotional toll and
the pressure and the anxietythat most people experience when
they go through this processfor weeks, months, years in some
cases to you know?
get where it is that you thinkthat you want to go.
You just need to understandthat those are some of the costs
(10:13):
that are associated with thatkind of litigation.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Well and they're important questions to ask
yourself because it informs whatyou are then looking for in a
lawyer.
And if you want somebody whocan just recite the Texas family
code, that's certainly notgoing to be anybody with our
firm and certainly wouldn't beanybody that I'm looking for.
You're going to want to find alawyer that understands not only
(10:37):
how to paint a story in court,but also maybe somebody that has
a family themselves.
I'm a dad.
You're a dad.
You understand the intricaciesof what it's like to have a
family.
You want to have somebody thatwill understand that and will be
empathetic and sympathetic toyou.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Absolutely.
And I, you know I it's notalways my first go-to area of
analysis, but I will often havea client say, hey, would you do
this?
And I have to tell them listen,they're not my kids, it's not
my money, it's not my family.
But look, here's in myexperience as a person, as a
human, as a father.
(11:17):
Here's what I might want tothink about when you get ready
to make this decision and justtry to empower the clients as
much as you can so that you knowthey have a fair shot at having
some kind of clue about what'scoming.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Absolutely so.
Once you ask yourself thosequestions, then the next piece
is to start doing some duediligence before you even set
foot into the room with yourpotential lawyer, or if you're
interviewing a number of lawyersbefore you meet set foot into
the room with your potentiallawyer, or if you're
interviewing a number of lawyersbefore you meet with them, is
to start to ask questions andfind answers about who that
person is.
I think that that is athreshold question before you
(11:56):
even set up a consultation.
Who is this person?
What is their educationalbackground?
You know, for me, it'simportant when we're hiring
lawyers is do they have lifeexperience outside of just going
to undergraduate, going to lawschool?
Have they had other jobs before?
I was a teacher, you were ateacher.
(12:16):
We have a wide variety ofdifferent life experiences that
inform their ability to be areally great lawyer.
You can also look at whatorganizations they're part of.
(12:36):
All the lawyers in our officeare part of the Houston Bar
Association, the Katie BarAssociation, fort Bend County
Bar Association, fort BendFamily Bar.
These are organizations that wejoin, not just because we want
to have a whole bunch oforganizations on our website,
but it's because of the peoplethat we get to meet there and
the knowledge that we gain there.
(12:57):
We get to visit with judges.
We get to know who they are aspeople.
We get to know how they thinkand how they operate.
We get to meet opposing counsel.
We get to meet the lawyers onthe other side, which is
important, not just you know,because we're going to become
buddies with our opposingcounsel, but it's because we
want to know who that person isthat we can do in your case that
(13:20):
will help reduce costs or getyou a better outcome.
Then we're going to do it andwe want to know the people that
we're going up against every day.
You want to do your duediligence and say does this
person just do family law and istheir practice 100% dedicated
to family law and the relatedareas?
(13:41):
I think a lot of people areimpressed when they see a lawyer
that is a jack-of-all-tradesand they say, oh, this is a
Renaissance man or a Renaissancewoman.
I don't look at it that way.
Necessarily, I want to havesomebody who is focused on
family law.
I am not going to a podiatristto have heart surgery.
I want to have somebody thatknows the ins and the outs of
(14:04):
family law.
And you can't do that if youare going from a family law
consultation to an immigrationlaw case, to a criminal law
hearing.
That's too much knowledge.
There's too much that you needto know about.
So due diligence, findinganswers, figuring it out ahead
of time is so incrediblyimportant.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Absolutely.
I would also say, you know, Ithink it's worth it to.
You know, go out there and takea look at the lawyers that
you're going to meet withwebsites, right?
I mean, not only did a lot oftimes will they have reviews
from former clients, but a lotof times it'll give you the
personal background of thelawyer themselves and some of
the things that you talked about, where they went to school
(14:47):
organizations that they're apart of.
Another thing that I think isworth it is to go onto the state
bars website and see if theyhave a disciplinary and they
have any complaints.
Um, because you you definitely,if they do, you definitely want
to give the lawyer a chance whenyou interview with them and do
the consultation to to speak tothat.
(15:08):
You know you mentioned earlierabout people being a jack of all
trades.
The reason why it's soimportant to have somebody that
(15:31):
specializes in family law inparticular is just because
family law is just broad andthere are so many different
areas that are within it andeven within family law, like we
talked about in our the lasttime that we met.
You know we talked about in ourthe last time that we met.
You know there are, you knowthere's complex property cases
and business valuations andthere are complex custody cases
(15:51):
with you know custodyevaluations and expert witnesses
and everything in between.
So you know you you definitelywant to have somebody that
specializes in family law and Ithink especially, you know,
going into a consultation hey, Iknow that the fight here in
this case is probably going tobe about custody of our kids.
Then you want to go out and getsomebody who's not only a
(16:14):
family lawyer but somebody who'sa comfortable litigating
custody cases.
In the same way, if maybe youdon't have children, or you two
you feel like are probably inagreement about custody issues,
but you know the fight is goingto be about the property
division and maybe the valuationof a business that one of you
owns, then you want a litigatorwho's not only a family law
(16:35):
specialist but somebody that'scomfortable with a complex
property division, and so thoseare the things questions that
you want to make sure that youask them in the consult about
how comfortable are they withthose specific things?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
So we've done our due diligence, we've done some
introspection about thequestions that we need to ask
ourselves first.
We're now in the room with theprospective lawyer and the very
first question and we talkedabout, you know, as we were
preparing for this, there are somany questions that we could
think of that if we were in theshoes of the client that we
(17:08):
would be wanting.
So we narrowed it down and thefirst question that you brought
up was what do you need done?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Absolutely.
You know, I a lot of times willfind that what I need, that the
clients don't always know whatthey need, and so one of my jobs
might be to ask them questionsso that I can figure that out
and then I can present theiroptions to them.
In case you don't meet withsomebody who's going to be able
to pull that out of you, I thinkit's important for you to go
(17:36):
into the consultation able totell them here's what I need,
for instance, in a divorce case.
One of the first things I wantto know is here's what I need,
for instance, in a divorce case.
One of the first things I wantto know is can you two live
together while this divorce ispending, or are you two living
together now?
Do we need you to haveexclusive use and possession of
this marital home?
Do we need to have a hearingsooner rather than later?
One of the other big questionswhen children are involved do
(17:59):
you have any issues with thisother person having possession
and access to these kids?
Do they have a drinking problem?
Do they have a problem wherethey'll, you know, discipline
the children with a belt?
That makes you uncomfortable,and so we might need to have a
hearing sooner rather than laterso that we can put that before
a judge and try to get you somekind of resolution.
Another really important thingis financial issues.
(18:20):
Right, do you have access tomoney?
Do you have access to creditcards?
Do you have access to a car?
Is there a reason why we mightneed to have a hearing sooner
rather than later to tell ajudge hey, judge, we need
interim attorney's fees, we needmoney so that they can pay the
rent.
We need money so that they canpay for a surgery that's coming
up, whatever those issues mightbe, surgery that's coming up,
(18:43):
whatever those issues might be.
You know those are all issuesthat oftentimes are presented at
what we call a temporary ordershearing.
But if you need that stuff now,you need to communicate to that
, to your attorney in theconsultation and then give them
an opportunity to then say toyou OK, here's, here's the path,
here's the steps that we needto go through to get that done
now.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Absolutely.
And the next line ofquestioning I think you should
have should be around costs,because for a lot of people that
is a threshold question.
Am I going to be able to affordthis attorney and I don't just
mean for the first few months ofthis case, I mean for the long
term of this case and so askyour lawyer very specific
questions about.
You know one of the questions Iget how much is this going to
(19:23):
cost?
That is an impossible questionfor me as a lawyer to answer if
it's phrased like that, becauseyou're coming to me and it's
like you're on the one yard lineon the other side of the field
and you're asking me am I goingto be able to score a touchdown?
Well, I don't know.
There's a million differentthings that are going to happen.
There's going to be 20 playsbetween here and then.
(19:45):
So a better question is to ask,if this happens, how much do
you think it would costapproximately?
If we have a temporary ordershearing approximately how much
is that going to cost?
How much is it going to be ifwe do a deposition of my spouse?
How much is it going to be ifwe do written interrogatories
(20:06):
and requests for production ofdocuments or we subpoena the
kid's school or the therapist,how much are each of those
pieces going to cost me?
And a lawyer should be able togive you a ballpark if you kind
of lay out the facts and the waythat you want this case to
proceed.
But if you just go to a lawyerand say I'm getting divorced,
how much is this going to cost?
And if a lawyer gives you adefinite answer, I'd be very
(20:31):
skeptical of that because it'sreally difficult to figure that
out.
You should also ask your lawyerabout how billing works.
Most lawyers, including ourfirm, does hourly billing and
each of the lawyers is at adifferent hourly billing works.
Most lawyers, including ourfirm, does hourly billing and
each of the lawyers is at adifferent hourly billing rate.
So a lawyer with probably alittle bit less experience or in
(20:52):
an area of the state or of thecountry that's going to be a
little bit lower cost, they'regoing to have a lower hourly
rate.
A lawyer that has moreexperience behind them or is in
a higher cost of living area isprobably going to have a higher
hourly rate.
Most lawyers, including our firm, will ask you for a retainer.
(21:12):
A retainer is just an advancedfee deposit that is placed into
an account and then, wheneveryou know, our firm does billing
twice a month most firms do itmuch less than that, but we do
that because we want our clientsto see what's going on
throughout the process.
Then money is taken from thatretainer and when you get to a
(21:33):
certain point you're going to beasked to replenish that
retainer if there's more to go.
If there's half a tank of gasand we've got to get to the
destination and we need morethan that half a tank, then we
need to replenish it back up.
But not every law office workslike that.
Some law offices very, very few, especially ones that are
(21:53):
experienced in contestedlitigation do flat fees.
For some that's an option.
You want to ask how much thoseflat fees are when those fees
are actually earned.
You want to ask how theretainer works.
Is it refundable?
If I hire the lawyer andtomorrow I fire the lawyer, am I
(22:15):
going to get my full retainerback With our firm?
You should.
With most reputable firms youshould.
You give a lawyer $10,000 andyou fire them the next day and
they say no, that's my money.
That's a big problem becausethat lawyer hasn't done the work
to earn it.
I would also ask about the teamthat's surrounding that lawyer.
(22:36):
Make sure that your lawyer isnot double billing for the work
that's being done in the office.
We have a team mentality.
We have a variety of differentlawyers with experiences.
We have support staff.
No one in our office is doublebilling, even though you might
see multiple people on there.
If I have an associate attorneythat can draft a petition for
(23:00):
half the cost is what it's goingto take me that they can do it
just as well as me.
I'm going to hand that off toan associate and I'll quickly
review their work, make surethat it's up to par and then
I'll file it.
Why?
Because I know it's going to belower costs for our client.
What you don't want to have isa conversation where it's me and
(23:23):
you and a support staff memberin a room and we're all talking
about the case and that is athousand dollar an hour
conversation because everybody'sbilling for it.
That is a recipe for aninflated bill.
So really get into theintricacies and, when you were
(23:43):
looking at the engagement letterletter or we call it the legal
services agreement, dig into ofpractice that have come to me
because they're firing orgetting rid of a former lawyer
(24:08):
to try to hire us on flat feecases.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I would not speak ill of lawyers that charge flat
fees, necessarily, but here'swhat I would caution people
about with that.
At the end of the day, a flatfee is nothing more than the
lawyer's best guess that thecase is not going to cost as
much as what the fee is.
And as soon as that guess iswrong and those fees now exceed
(24:36):
the flat fee that you paid,they're either going to ask you
for more money or they're goingto have to withdraw from the
case.
And the only reason why I saythat I feel like people should
be cautious about that isbecause there is a better way.
The better way is to just pay aretainer from some and pay it
to somebody reputable, that youknow that if the case doesn't
cost as much as the retainer andthen will go three months
(24:58):
without billing you.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
And so you think, oh, I've got $10,000, that's
sitting there, I've got $5,000or I've got $20,000 sitting
there in a retainer.
And then all of a sudden youget billed for three months of
work and not only is yourretainer gone, but your lawyer
(25:21):
then says you actually owe memoney and it's because they're
not billing regularly so you'renot able to keep up with the
work that they're doing.
That that's very difficult forclients to keep up with.
It's the reason that we, ourclients, can expect the 15th of
the month and the last day ofthe month they're going to be
getting an invoice.
It's a routine and theyunderstand it and they can see
(25:43):
how much is left in theirer.
The thing you mentioned aboutflat fees one of the things I've
noticed is that there seems tobe an incentive in the flat fees
and there are some lawyers Iknow very ethical, very honest
they don't do this but thatthere may be an incentive for
that lawyer to if say, theparties are trying to go to
(26:07):
mediation and ostensiblyeverybody agrees we should go to
mediation, but there'ssomething in that lawyer's
contract that they get paid athousand dollars if they have to
go to a court hearing.
Well, all of a sudden, we'regetting a motion for mediation,
even though there's an agreementon it, and we're going to court
for something we wouldn'tordinarily need to, because that
(26:27):
lawyer wants to get paid hisflat fee to go to court.
So there are upsides and thereare downsides to the flat fee,
Like you said.
I think that if it were me, Iwould go with somebody that is
billing regularly and billinghonestly and is not getting
upset if I'm asking questionsabout the bill.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Absolutely and I can't.
I can't agree with you moreabout the billing.
I would say this to anybody Ifyou go through this process and
you do hire a lawyer and it'sbeen 30 days and you don't have
a bill, you need to reach out tothem.
You need to raise hell and youneed to get a bill.
If you don't, or if the billdoesn't make sense to you, you
need to think about switchinglawyers then and there.
(27:06):
If it's been 30 days and youhaven't seen a bill, that's a
problem, I agree.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
All right.
The next question that youshould ask in your initial
consultation and this is kind ofbroad, but you just want to
know if your lawyer knows whatthey're doing.
What kind of questions do youask?
How do you figure that out?
I?
Speaker 2 (27:23):
think that kind of goes back to what we talked
about earlier about what do youneed done, right, if you need
exclusive use of possession ofthe marital home and you need
that now because you and yourspouse can't live together, you
need to express that.
But then the next part of thatquestion is okay, how do we do
that Part of that?
Part of the reason why I saythat is because part of that
(27:43):
process is well, how quickly doyou need?
I mean, look, if you needexclusive possession of your
marital home because your spouseis potentially violent, maybe
has a drinking problem, wellthen, the fastest way to get you
that is that we need to file atemporary restraining order, we
need to attach an affidavit, askfor extraordinary relief.
It's a very specific process,right, and not all lawyers,
(28:05):
necessarily, are going tounderstand the different nuts
and bolts of that process.
So you need to know what it isthat you need, going into the
consultation and then, once yousay that, ask them okay, how do
we get there?
And then let the lawyer explainto you in a way that makes
sense to you, exactly how thatprocess works.
If their answer is, we got towait till trial, or if their
answer is well, we got to go tomediation.
(28:27):
Well, I mean, listen, that'strue sometimes.
I mean, if you want exclusiveuse and possession of your home
just because you and your spousedon't really like each other
and you're not getting along, wecan write an affidavit all we
want to.
That's not going to be enoughfor a judge to kick somebody out
and we will have to wait untilmediation to resolve that issue.
(28:48):
But when we're talking aboutfamily violence or we're talking
about alcohol abuse or some ofthose different things, I mean
there is a way, there is aprocess which is accelerated and
different than let's go tomediation and then have a
temporary orders hearing bywhich we can do that.
But your lawyers got to know,got to know that process.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think sometimes you can learn
a lot by explaining yoursituation.
And if it is a more complexarea of law that say your lawyer
doesn't know the answer to it'sthat they're going to tell you
let's, I don't know the answerto that, let's wait and let me
(29:27):
find the answer, instead of justkind of riffing and making it
up.
That's the thing they don'ttell you about law school is
that you're not necessarilylearning every intricacy of the
law.
You're learning how to find theanswer that you need, the
answer of the question, and aslawyers with a number of years
(29:48):
of experience, we do this day inand day out.
We know a lot of the answers tothe questions.
We know how to paint thepicture for the judge.
We know litigation strategy.
But quite often, especially infamily law, which is so unique,
and we see things that every daythat you say, well, I've never
seen that before.
There are a number of timeswhere you need to take a step
(30:12):
back and say I don't know theanswer to that, but I know where
to find the answer.
Instead of making something upor hedging, I'm just going to
tell you the truth.
Let me figure that out and I'llget that back to you.
If your lawyer does that, Iwouldn't look at that as a bad
thing.
Like well, they don't know whatthey're talking about, they
don't know the nuts and thebolts.
I would take that as a goodthing that they're not going to
(30:35):
BS you.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Absolutely.
That is something that I havedone and will do.
If I'm in a consultation,especially, and a client poses a
unique situation or a uniquequestion to me and I'm not
exactly sure what the answer is,I'll tell them listen, I'm
going to research that.
I'm going to maybe talk withsome colleagues of mine, I might
(30:57):
look into some case law, butI'm going to figure that out and
I'm going to get back to youand I'm going to let you know.
I think that's particularlyimportant to me because I don't
want to lose credibility with myclients.
What I don't want to do is BS aclient, like you just said, and
end up in a courtroom and end upon the wrong end of that and
then come to find out I didn'tknow what I was talking about
(31:18):
and now the client knows it too,and I probably spent a lot of
money and a lot of theirresources for them to find out
that I'm a fool.
And I'd rather go back to themlater and say listen, I did what
I needed to do.
Here's the truth or here's howI think that's going to play in
court.
What do you want us to do now?
I've at least in my experience,every client I've ever done
that with, I feel like, hasalways been satisfied with me
(31:42):
taking that extra time to figureout the answer to that question
or to that issue.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
You're a prospective new client and you're trying to
figure out.
Does my lawyer know the nutsand bolts of family law?
What are some of the thingsthat you would be looking for?
What are some of the questionsthat you would be?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
asking, I think some of the biggest things would be I
think that you can tell a wholelot about a lawyer by doing one
of the things that we alreadytalked about, which is is there
anything that you need in thepresent that you need done right
now, and how do you get there?
And then I think the secondthing is and even though lawyers
may be very experienced at thefamily law process, I don't
(32:20):
think all of them are as goodabout explaining that process at
least to potential new clients.
I think that after you pass, isthere anything that I need in
the here and the now, and how dowe get there?
I think you need to ask anylawyer that you're thinking
about hiring how does theprocess work?
What's the timeline on some ofthese different issues?
(32:40):
Now, we both know that casescan last for months, sometimes
years, and there's often a lotof things that will come up in a
litigation that you can'tforesee.
But if people ask you specificquestions about stages in the
process, you can definitely givethem a good estimation about
how long it normally would takeif this or that or the other
(33:03):
thing occurs.
I feel like if your lawyerpotential lawyer can't make you
feel comfortable about, here'show I can get you what you need
in the here and the now, andhere's what the process should
look like from front to back,and here's approximately how
long it should take and here'show how much in a ballpark some
of these different things shouldcost.
That's probably not the rightlawyer for you.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Okay, so the next set of questions that you should
ask should probably be aboutresources.
And what resources does thislawyer have?
There are plenty of lawyers outthere that are solo attorneys
and they're excellent attorneys,but there comes a point when
you're just one person in oneoffice and you're in trial and
(33:48):
you've got a number of otherclients is that you just don't
have the resources in order tomeet the needs of all of your
clients.
And it's one of the reasonsthat at our firm, we have built
a team of 10 attorneys.
We've got a number of supportstaff that are backing up those
attorneys.
A team is important, but justthe resources that are
surrounding each of thoseattorneys and support staff and
(34:11):
when I talk about resources, Idon't just mean people, which
are important.
I'm with a variety of differentexperiences inside and outside
the courtroom people that youcan go to as an attorney.
You can go to your colleagueswithin the firm and say have you
been in front of this judgebefore?
Have you addressed this issue?
Or I have this problem in oneof my cases.
(34:35):
How would you attack this?
What would you file?
The colleague might even comeand say I actually had that
exact same issue and I alreadywrote a brief on it and then as
an attorney, you can take thatand, without having to bill that
client for writing a brand newbrief and doing all the
investigative work, you canrepurpose that, save the client
some money and you have an ideaof what that judge is already
(34:57):
going to do.
Having a team of people isreally important, but I also
mean the physical resources andmeaning.
You know our firm really placesa premium on technology.
We've got access to the latestform books, the latest research
(35:17):
technology with Westlaw andLexisNexis.
If there is somebody that weneed to do a background check,
we can do that within fiveminutes.
If you don't know where yoursignificant other, your spouse,
lives, we can usually track themdown and we can figure that out
.
But also resources meaningvendors.
(35:39):
You'll have a case that willcome in that ought to be a very
complex property case.
We have a cadre of certifieddivorce financial analysts that
we can call upon that cancontract with our folks and they
can provide complex financialadvice and they can collaborate
(36:00):
with us and they have experiencedoing so and doing well.
They can also testify in court.
We have a cadre of forensicaccountants and forensic
analysts that can go throughbank statements and they can
value businesses.
And these are people that wehave a relationship with and we
can trust.
And we've got certified divorcereal estate experts that know
(36:25):
how to sell a house and theyknow how to work with people.
So it's not only the people inthe firm, it's the people
outside the firm, it's the fullresources that are available to
a law firm.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Absolutely, and it absolutely makes a difference.
I can tell when I have a lawyeron the other side who clearly
has a lot less resources than wedo, and it makes a difference.
You can usually see it in thelegal paperwork that they file
with the court.
And if you go the distance andit comes to a trial or a
contested hearing, you and Iboth know you can be as
(36:57):
competent as you want to be, butit's not enough just to be
competent, to necessarily knowthe family code and to
understand how family lawprocess works.
(37:17):
There are so many other things,which is the reason why we have
and and spend the money andinvest the time to have those
kinds of resources at our firmbecause they make a difference.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Sure, and if you could hire a certified divorce
financial analyst or a forensicaccountant to do the work for a
fraction of the costs that wewould be doing, but they have an
expertise in it you want tohave that person doing the work
because we're not mathematicians, we're not financial analysts.
In fact, many folks in our firmwould probably say I went to
(37:51):
law school because I am not amath person.
That's right, but we know whereto find the people and we have
relationships with them and wehave a track record where
they've done a good job for usand it's finding a firm that has
those relationships.
So, in terms of phrasing, whatkind of questions would you ask?
Just generally ask whatresources are available to the
(38:12):
firm, both inside and outside,and tailor it to your particular
case.
If you've got a business, youwant to start asking questions
about business valuation.
If you have a complex financialestate, you want to start
asking questions about havingcertified financial planners,
certified divorce financialanalysts, on board your case
because they're going to be ableto provide you with the tax
(38:33):
advice and the financialplanning advice that your lawyer
can't or shouldn't be providingto you.
Tailor your questions to yourparticular case and ask if your
law firm has or your lawyer thatyou're looking at has those
resources available to them,absolutely.
And then the last question orset of questions that you should
(38:55):
ask your potential lawyer in aninitial consultation would be
about communication, and I knowfor your clients you're one of
the most accessible lawyers.
You're available to yourclients if you need them.
What kind of questions shouldfolks be asking their
prospective lawyer aboutcommunication?
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I definitely think that you want to ask your
potential lawyer.
You know how long is it goingto take If I reach out to you,
if I have an issue.
When can I expect a response?
You know, at our firm we try tobe very rigid, for good reason,
about having a 24 hour responserule, and usually it doesn't
even take 24 hours for us torespond.
(39:34):
It's usually more like 12 thatbusiness day, next business day
who are firing or looking for anew lawyer, firing an old lawyer
, former lawyer?
And oftentimes one of thebiggest reasons why they're
doing that is because they justdon't feel like they matter,
because they can't get a hold oftheir attorney.
(39:56):
And in some cases, you know, insome situations it's that they
can't get a hold of the attorney.
They can get a hold of everyoneelse at the law firm the
paralegal, the support staff,whatever it might be but they
can't seem to get the answersthat they need out of the lawyer
themselves and they just feellike their case doesn't matter.
And so I definitely think thatit's important when you're in
(40:18):
that consultation to ask themyou know how long will it be
before you respond if I have anissue and I think, secondarily
maybe just to ask them howimportant do you think it is the
lawyer to timely communicatewith clients?
Now I have potential clientsthat come into my office who
will say I met with anotherlawyer and now I'm meeting with
(40:38):
you and I ask them that samequestion.
And they laughed, you know,essentially as if it's as
important as I want to make itand I'll get to you when I get
to you, and that just seemsabsurd and ridiculous to me.
I mean, you know, not only justbecause it's not very good
business, but you know these arepeople, these are their
(40:59):
families, these are their lives.
It's very important to them,and especially early on in the
process.
You know people are scared,people are nervous, people are
anxious, and so they need thatreassurance.
And I think it's very importantwhen you sit down in that
consultation, to ask them thosetwo questions and see what they
(41:19):
have to say about them.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Thank you very much for joining me.
David is the lead attorney atour League City office at Hunt
Law Firm.
If you'd like more informationon our firm, you can visit
familylawyerkatiecom.
If you are watching us onYouTube, please like the video.
Please subscribe to the channelso you'll get future podcasts.
We also have a number of othervideos on the website that you
(41:44):
can see, and if you're listeningto this on Spotify or Apple
Podcasts or another podcastmethod, please subscribe.
You'll get these deliveredright to you every week, and if
you need to find us by phone,you can call us at 832-315-5494.
(42:05):
See you next time.
Hi and welcome back to the Texas Family Lawyer
Podcast.
I'm Alex Hunt, managingattorney at Hunt Law Firm,
serving the greater Houston area, and today I'm joined by David
C Adams.
He is a senior associateattorney at Hunt Law Firm and he
(00:22):
is the lead attorney at ourLeague City office.
Welcome, david Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
David, we're going to jump right into it.
We had part one of this serieswhere we talked about how to
choose the right divorce lawyer,and so if you are watching this
on YouTube, you can go back afew months and you can find it.
I'll also link it in thedescription.
Today is part two.
We're going to talk about thequestions that you should ask in
your initial consultation fordivorce.
(00:49):
Number one is the questionsthat you need to ask yourself
before you even step foot intothe initial consultation.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Exactly Some of the most important questions, I
think, are probably thequestions you ask yourself
before you even get to theconsultation.
You know, most of the time, thecases that we work be it
divorce or child custody casesyou know they're going to.
Typically they're going toinvolve children.
I think one really importantquestion to ask yourself is how
(01:19):
much do you want to involve yourchildren in the litigation?
I often meet with clients orpotential clients who will say
you know, I don't want my kidsinvolved at all.
And then I'll probably an almostequal number will encounter
clients or potential clients whowill say I want my child
involved, in the sense that Iwant them to have a voice.
(01:40):
I want their opinion on, say,this child custody issue to be
heard.
I want the judge to know whatit is that they want.
And so I think it's a veryimportant question before you
ever go meet with a lawyer howmuch do you potentially want
your child to be involved inthat litigation and how much of
it is necessary, so that thatway, when you go and meet with a
lawyer, you can have an honestconversation with them about how
(02:02):
could we do that, what's thebest way to do that, what's the
most appropriate thing in thoseterms?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
And I also think what are you looking to get out of
the process?
We talked about this in thelast one.
I think the word you used wasretribution.
Are you looking for retribution?
Are you looking for this to bepainful for the other side?
Are you looking for a bulldogor a shark Somebody though that
might, when they're or a shark,somebody though that might, when
(02:28):
they're being a bulldog.
They might also drive up costs.
They might make things morecontentious.
Is that what you're looking for?
Or are you looking for somebodythat is going to be solutions
oriented and is going to try tofind that path of least
resistance, the person that'sgoing to try to find solutions
for you?
And the background is alsohaving concurrent planning of if
(02:49):
we have to go to court.
Damn sure I'm going to be readyfor it.
You want to ask yourself whatdo I need to get out of this
process and how should that playinto the search for my lawyer?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's exactly right.
I think it's a great frameworkquestion to think about.
Do I want answers?
You know I meet with a lot ofclients, especially in divorce
cases, where they feel liketheir marriage has fallen apart
and I think they kind of justwant to know why.
Now, that's not always aquestion that I can answer for
(03:24):
them, um, and oftentimeslitigation won't necessarily do
that.
But if the question is where'smy spouse been spending all of
our money, I might be able toanswer that, but that's going to
involve the discovery processand financial documents and
possibly subpoenas.
Sometimes, you know people,people, people come in and what
(03:44):
they want is they just want itto be over with.
Right, they want to.
They want important thingBecause, as your potential
lawyer, when you tell me thingslike that, like, look, I want to
(04:11):
try to get this over as quicklyas possible.
I want to try to figure out asmany solutions as quickly as we
can and I can lay out theoptions for you how we might be
able to best achieve that.
Similarly, if you come in andyou say, look, here are some
things that have happened, I'mnot really sure what's going on.
I want to know it's importantto me or it's important to my
kids that I can lay out someoptions for you about the path
(04:33):
that we need to take to try todo that and do that as quickly
as possible.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Well, when you're in that introspective mode, I think
it's important to also look atyour finances and say how much
am I able to, how much am Iwilling to spend on this process
?
Folks that don't have a lot ofmoney or folks that have limited
resources they deserve to haveexcellent representation too.
They deserve to have somebodywho's fighting for them.
(04:56):
It just might mean that there'sgoing to be some of those
options that might be availableto folks that have unlimited
resources.
Some of those things might bemore limited for them, but it
doesn't mean that they don't getto have an excellent attorney,
and so they need to have an ideabefore they set foot in the
initial consultation of what amI looking for out of my lawyer?
(05:17):
Am I looking for somebody who'sgoing to go all out, is not
going to run things by me,that's going to take every
liberty, go into every account,look at every transaction, is
going to put things into aspread, is going to waste no
time and is going to spend everydollar I have?
(05:39):
Am I looking for somebody who'sgoing to be a little bit more
affordable and that will allowme to guide the process as the
client?
That's what I think most folksshould be looking for Somebody
who's solutions oriented and isgoing to have somebody who is
guiding them, but the client'sstill driving the bus.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
That's absolutely right and you know.
You just brought up theexamples of financials and
spreadsheets, and you know whenwe, when we're doing a divorce,
potentially all of that canmatter.
Is it possible that your spousemight have spent some money
that they shouldn't have spentand that if we dig through
thousands and thousands of pagesof financial documents, we
(06:16):
might find it?
Perhaps, but it's also possible.
Well, it's definite that we'regoing to spend many attorney
hours digging through thosefinancial documents to maybe
find something, or maybe to not.
You know, honestly, in morecases than not, that I work.
I think people are suspiciousof each other when they come to
(06:38):
the table at the divorce process.
I think what they end upfinding out is that oftentimes
things aren't quite as bad asthey think that they are, or the
other person isn't quite asnefarious as they want to
believe, and so they're justspending money on what most
people would probably say arenormal things like eating out
(06:58):
and going to the movies andmaybe shopping for clothes, and
so a lot of times we can spend alot of money finding out that
there's not that much really tosee there, and so it is to your
point.
It is really important to thinkabout some of those things and
the costs that are associatedwith looking into some of those
things and whether or not that'sreally worth it for you.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And there's the financial cost, and folks need
to look inside themselves andfigure out what am I able to do.
They need to look at theirfinances, but there's also the
emotional cost, and not only onthem but on their kids as well.
And so, putting aside theproperty piece, when you're
looking at kid issues, who'sgoing to get primary custody of
(07:41):
the child or children?
Do I want this fight or am Iwilling to be a little bit more
flexible?
Those are really importantquestions because the stress
that litigation can have on youI don't just mean sitting inside
the courtroom, I mean theprotracted process from start to
(08:03):
finish.
When you file your petition, youget your spouse served all the
way until the end of the case,when the judge is giving you a
verdict and everything inbetween, which might mean an
amicus attorney is appointed,which is a third party attorney
that's going to tell the courtwhat they think is in the best
interest of that child.
That's going to be somebody whomeets your child.
(08:24):
It might be an in-chambersinterview with your child and
the judge and in some limitedcases we've seen this more
lately, there's actually beencourt cases where the children
have actually you know, olderchildren typically have been
testifying in court?
What are you willing to take onemotionally and are you finding
(08:46):
the right lawyer that can helpguide you through that process?
Not only legally and I don'tmean you're looking for a lawyer
that also has a side hustle asa therapist.
I mean somebody that's going toguide you with compassion and
understands that there's notonly legal consequences for
every action, but that you're areal person and that it has
effects on you.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
That's absolutely right.
Everything that you just saidis right, and I would, maybe
just while we're not therapists.
I think, that any decent familylawyer, trial attorney in family
law would not be doing theirjob if they didn't try as best
they could, based on theirexperience watching people and
(09:28):
children and families go throughthis process, to say, hey, you
got to understand.
This is a big deal.
It's going to be a big deal foryou.
It's definitely going to be abig deal for your kids.
It's probably going to be a bigdeal for your spouse.
You know you said earlier abouthow these this can last over.
You know, not just one day incourt, but it can last over
months, sometimes these caseslast years.
(09:49):
It is not a sprint, it is amarathon.
Do you really want to gothrough the emotional toll and
the pressure and the anxietythat most people experience when
they go through this processfor weeks, months, years in some
cases to you know?
get where it is that you thinkthat you want to go.
You just need to understandthat those are some of the costs
(10:13):
that are associated with thatkind of litigation.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Well and they're important questions to ask
yourself because it informs whatyou are then looking for in a
lawyer.
And if you want somebody whocan just recite the Texas family
code, that's certainly notgoing to be anybody with our
firm and certainly wouldn't beanybody that I'm looking for.
You're going to want to find alawyer that understands not only
(10:37):
how to paint a story in court,but also maybe somebody that has
a family themselves.
I'm a dad.
You're a dad.
You understand the intricaciesof what it's like to have a
family.
You want to have somebody thatwill understand that and will be
empathetic and sympathetic toyou.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Absolutely.
And I, you know I it's notalways my first go-to area of
analysis, but I will often havea client say, hey, would you do
this?
And I have to tell them listen,they're not my kids, it's not
my money, it's not my family.
But look, here's in myexperience as a person, as a
human, as a father.
(11:17):
Here's what I might want tothink about when you get ready
to make this decision and justtry to empower the clients as
much as you can so that you knowthey have a fair shot at having
some kind of clue about what'scoming.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Absolutely so.
Once you ask yourself thosequestions, then the next piece
is to start doing some duediligence before you even set
foot into the room with yourpotential lawyer, or if you're
interviewing a number of lawyersbefore you meet set foot into
the room with your potentiallawyer, or if you're
interviewing a number of lawyersbefore you meet with them, is
to start to ask questions andfind answers about who that
person is.
I think that that is athreshold question before you
(11:56):
even set up a consultation.
Who is this person?
What is their educationalbackground?
You know, for me, it'simportant when we're hiring
lawyers is do they have lifeexperience outside of just going
to undergraduate, going to lawschool?
Have they had other jobs before?
I was a teacher, you were ateacher.
(12:16):
We have a wide variety ofdifferent life experiences that
inform their ability to be areally great lawyer.
You can also look at whatorganizations they're part of.
(12:36):
All the lawyers in our officeare part of the Houston Bar
Association, the Katie BarAssociation, fort Bend County
Bar Association, fort BendFamily Bar.
These are organizations that wejoin, not just because we want
to have a whole bunch oforganizations on our website,
but it's because of the peoplethat we get to meet there and
the knowledge that we gain there.
(12:57):
We get to visit with judges.
We get to know who they are aspeople.
We get to know how they thinkand how they operate.
We get to meet opposing counsel.
We get to meet the lawyers onthe other side, which is
important, not just you know,because we're going to become
buddies with our opposingcounsel, but it's because we
want to know who that person isthat we can do in your case that
(13:20):
will help reduce costs or getyou a better outcome.
Then we're going to do it andwe want to know the people that
we're going up against every day.
You want to do your duediligence and say does this
person just do family law and istheir practice 100% dedicated
to family law and the relatedareas?
(13:41):
I think a lot of people areimpressed when they see a lawyer
that is a jack-of-all-tradesand they say, oh, this is a
Renaissance man or a Renaissancewoman.
I don't look at it that way.
Necessarily, I want to havesomebody who is focused on
family law.
I am not going to a podiatristto have heart surgery.
I want to have somebody thatknows the ins and the outs of
(14:04):
family law.
And you can't do that if youare going from a family law
consultation to an immigrationlaw case, to a criminal law
hearing.
That's too much knowledge.
There's too much that you needto know about.
So due diligence, findinganswers, figuring it out ahead
of time is so incrediblyimportant.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Absolutely.
I would also say, you know, Ithink it's worth it to.
You know, go out there and takea look at the lawyers that
you're going to meet withwebsites, right?
I mean, not only did a lot oftimes will they have reviews
from former clients, but a lotof times it'll give you the
personal background of thelawyer themselves and some of
the things that you talked about, where they went to school
(14:47):
organizations that they're apart of.
Another thing that I think isworth it is to go onto the state
bars website and see if theyhave a disciplinary and they
have any complaints.
Um, because you you definitely,if they do, you definitely want
to give the lawyer a chance whenyou interview with them and do
the consultation to to speak tothat.
(15:08):
You know you mentioned earlierabout people being a jack of all
trades.
The reason why it's soimportant to have somebody that
(15:31):
specializes in family law inparticular is just because
family law is just broad andthere are so many different
areas that are within it andeven within family law, like we
talked about in our the lasttime that we met.
You know we talked about in ourthe last time that we met.
You know there are, you knowthere's complex property cases
and business valuations andthere are complex custody cases
(15:51):
with you know custodyevaluations and expert witnesses
and everything in between.
So you know you you definitelywant to have somebody that
specializes in family law and Ithink especially, you know,
going into a consultation hey, Iknow that the fight here in
this case is probably going tobe about custody of our kids.
Then you want to go out and getsomebody who's not only a
(16:14):
family lawyer but somebody who'sa comfortable litigating
custody cases.
In the same way, if maybe youdon't have children, or you two
you feel like are probably inagreement about custody issues,
but you know the fight is goingto be about the property
division and maybe the valuationof a business that one of you
owns, then you want a litigatorwho's not only a family law
(16:35):
specialist but somebody that'scomfortable with a complex
property division, and so thoseare the things questions that
you want to make sure that youask them in the consult about
how comfortable are they withthose specific things?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
So we've done our due diligence, we've done some
introspection about thequestions that we need to ask
ourselves first.
We're now in the room with theprospective lawyer and the very
first question and we talkedabout, you know, as we were
preparing for this, there are somany questions that we could
think of that if we were in theshoes of the client that we
(17:08):
would be wanting.
So we narrowed it down and thefirst question that you brought
up was what do you need done?
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Absolutely.
You know, I a lot of times willfind that what I need, that the
clients don't always know whatthey need, and so one of my jobs
might be to ask them questionsso that I can figure that out
and then I can present theiroptions to them.
In case you don't meet withsomebody who's going to be able
to pull that out of you, I thinkit's important for you to go
(17:36):
into the consultation able totell them here's what I need,
for instance, in a divorce case.
One of the first things I wantto know is here's what I need,
for instance, in a divorce case.
One of the first things I wantto know is can you two live
together while this divorce ispending, or are you two living
together now?
Do we need you to haveexclusive use and possession of
this marital home?
Do we need to have a hearingsooner rather than later?
One of the other big questionswhen children are involved do
(17:59):
you have any issues with thisother person having possession
and access to these kids?
Do they have a drinking problem?
Do they have a problem wherethey'll, you know, discipline
the children with a belt?
That makes you uncomfortable,and so we might need to have a
hearing sooner rather than laterso that we can put that before
a judge and try to get you somekind of resolution.
Another really important thingis financial issues.
(18:20):
Right, do you have access tomoney?
Do you have access to creditcards?
Do you have access to a car?
Is there a reason why we mightneed to have a hearing sooner
rather than later to tell ajudge hey, judge, we need
interim attorney's fees, we needmoney so that they can pay the
rent.
We need money so that they canpay for a surgery that's coming
up, whatever those issues mightbe, surgery that's coming up,
(18:43):
whatever those issues might be.
You know those are all issuesthat oftentimes are presented at
what we call a temporary ordershearing.
But if you need that stuff now,you need to communicate to that
, to your attorney in theconsultation and then give them
an opportunity to then say toyou OK, here's, here's the path,
here's the steps that we needto go through to get that done
now.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Absolutely.
And the next line ofquestioning I think you should
have should be around costs,because for a lot of people that
is a threshold question.
Am I going to be able to affordthis attorney and I don't just
mean for the first few months ofthis case, I mean for the long
term of this case and so askyour lawyer very specific
questions about.
You know one of the questions Iget how much is this going to
(19:23):
cost?
That is an impossible questionfor me as a lawyer to answer if
it's phrased like that, becauseyou're coming to me and it's
like you're on the one yard lineon the other side of the field
and you're asking me am I goingto be able to score a touchdown?
Well, I don't know.
There's a million differentthings that are going to happen.
There's going to be 20 playsbetween here and then.
(19:45):
So a better question is to ask,if this happens, how much do
you think it would costapproximately?
If we have a temporary ordershearing approximately how much
is that going to cost?
How much is it going to be ifwe do a deposition of my spouse?
How much is it going to be ifwe do written interrogatories
(20:06):
and requests for production ofdocuments or we subpoena the
kid's school or the therapist,how much are each of those
pieces going to cost me?
And a lawyer should be able togive you a ballpark if you kind
of lay out the facts and the waythat you want this case to
proceed.
But if you just go to a lawyerand say I'm getting divorced,
how much is this going to cost?
And if a lawyer gives you adefinite answer, I'd be very
(20:31):
skeptical of that because it'sreally difficult to figure that
out.
You should also ask your lawyerabout how billing works.
Most lawyers, including ourfirm, does hourly billing and
each of the lawyers is at adifferent hourly billing works.
Most lawyers, including ourfirm, does hourly billing and
each of the lawyers is at adifferent hourly billing rate.
So a lawyer with probably alittle bit less experience or in
(20:52):
an area of the state or of thecountry that's going to be a
little bit lower cost, they'regoing to have a lower hourly
rate.
A lawyer that has moreexperience behind them or is in
a higher cost of living area isprobably going to have a higher
hourly rate.
Most lawyers, including our firm, will ask you for a retainer.
(21:12):
A retainer is just an advancedfee deposit that is placed into
an account and then, wheneveryou know, our firm does billing
twice a month most firms do itmuch less than that, but we do
that because we want our clientsto see what's going on
throughout the process.
Then money is taken from thatretainer and when you get to a
(21:33):
certain point you're going to beasked to replenish that
retainer if there's more to go.
If there's half a tank of gasand we've got to get to the
destination and we need morethan that half a tank, then we
need to replenish it back up.
But not every law office workslike that.
Some law offices very, very few, especially ones that are
(21:53):
experienced in contestedlitigation do flat fees.
For some that's an option.
You want to ask how much thoseflat fees are when those fees
are actually earned.
You want to ask how theretainer works.
Is it refundable?
If I hire the lawyer andtomorrow I fire the lawyer, am I
(22:15):
going to get my full retainerback With our firm?
You should.
With most reputable firms youshould.
You give a lawyer $10,000 andyou fire them the next day and
they say no, that's my money.
That's a big problem becausethat lawyer hasn't done the work
to earn it.
I would also ask about the teamthat's surrounding that lawyer.
(22:36):
Make sure that your lawyer isnot double billing for the work
that's being done in the office.
We have a team mentality.
We have a variety of differentlawyers with experiences.
We have support staff.
No one in our office is doublebilling, even though you might
see multiple people on there.
If I have an associate attorneythat can draft a petition for
(23:00):
half the cost is what it's goingto take me that they can do it
just as well as me.
I'm going to hand that off toan associate and I'll quickly
review their work, make surethat it's up to par and then
I'll file it.
Why?
Because I know it's going to belower costs for our client.
What you don't want to have isa conversation where it's me and
(23:23):
you and a support staff memberin a room and we're all talking
about the case and that is athousand dollar an hour
conversation because everybody'sbilling for it.
That is a recipe for aninflated bill.
So really get into theintricacies and, when you were
(23:43):
looking at the engagement letterletter or we call it the legal
services agreement, dig into ofpractice that have come to me
because they're firing orgetting rid of a former lawyer
(24:08):
to try to hire us on flat feecases.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
I would not speak ill of lawyers that charge flat
fees, necessarily, but here'swhat I would caution people
about with that.
At the end of the day, a flatfee is nothing more than the
lawyer's best guess that thecase is not going to cost as
much as what the fee is.
And as soon as that guess iswrong and those fees now exceed
(24:36):
the flat fee that you paid,they're either going to ask you
for more money or they're goingto have to withdraw from the
case.
And the only reason why I saythat I feel like people should
be cautious about that isbecause there is a better way.
The better way is to just pay aretainer from some and pay it
to somebody reputable, that youknow that if the case doesn't
cost as much as the retainer andthen will go three months
(24:58):
without billing you.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
And so you think, oh, I've got $10,000, that's
sitting there, I've got $5,000or I've got $20,000 sitting
there in a retainer.
And then all of a sudden youget billed for three months of
work and not only is yourretainer gone, but your lawyer
(25:21):
then says you actually owe memoney and it's because they're
not billing regularly so you'renot able to keep up with the
work that they're doing.
That that's very difficult forclients to keep up with.
It's the reason that we, ourclients, can expect the 15th of
the month and the last day ofthe month they're going to be
getting an invoice.
It's a routine and theyunderstand it and they can see
(25:43):
how much is left in theirer.
The thing you mentioned aboutflat fees one of the things I've
noticed is that there seems tobe an incentive in the flat fees
and there are some lawyers Iknow very ethical, very honest
they don't do this but thatthere may be an incentive for
that lawyer to if say, theparties are trying to go to
(26:07):
mediation and ostensiblyeverybody agrees we should go to
mediation, but there'ssomething in that lawyer's
contract that they get paid athousand dollars if they have to
go to a court hearing.
Well, all of a sudden, we'regetting a motion for mediation,
even though there's an agreementon it, and we're going to court
for something we wouldn'tordinarily need to, because that
(26:27):
lawyer wants to get paid hisflat fee to go to court.
So there are upsides and thereare downsides to the flat fee,
Like you said.
I think that if it were me, Iwould go with somebody that is
billing regularly and billinghonestly and is not getting
upset if I'm asking questionsabout the bill.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Absolutely and I can't.
I can't agree with you moreabout the billing.
I would say this to anybody Ifyou go through this process and
you do hire a lawyer and it'sbeen 30 days and you don't have
a bill, you need to reach out tothem.
You need to raise hell and youneed to get a bill.
If you don't, or if the billdoesn't make sense to you, you
need to think about switchinglawyers then and there.
(27:06):
If it's been 30 days and youhaven't seen a bill, that's a
problem, I agree.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
All right.
The next question that youshould ask in your initial
consultation and this is kind ofbroad, but you just want to
know if your lawyer knows whatthey're doing.
What kind of questions do youask?
How do you figure that out?
I?
Speaker 2 (27:23):
think that kind of goes back to what we talked
about earlier about what do youneed done, right, if you need
exclusive use of possession ofthe marital home and you need
that now because you and yourspouse can't live together, you
need to express that.
But then the next part of thatquestion is okay, how do we do
that Part of that?
Part of the reason why I saythat is because part of that
(27:43):
process is well, how quickly doyou need?
I mean, look, if you needexclusive possession of your
marital home because your spouseis potentially violent, maybe
has a drinking problem, wellthen, the fastest way to get you
that is that we need to file atemporary restraining order, we
need to attach an affidavit, askfor extraordinary relief.
It's a very specific process,right, and not all lawyers,
(28:05):
necessarily, are going tounderstand the different nuts
and bolts of that process.
So you need to know what it isthat you need, going into the
consultation and then, once yousay that, ask them okay, how do
we get there?
And then let the lawyer explainto you in a way that makes
sense to you, exactly how thatprocess works.
If their answer is, we got towait till trial, or if their
answer is well, we got to go tomediation.
(28:27):
Well, I mean, listen, that'strue sometimes.
I mean, if you want exclusiveuse and possession of your home
just because you and your spousedon't really like each other
and you're not getting along, wecan write an affidavit all we
want to.
That's not going to be enoughfor a judge to kick somebody out
and we will have to wait untilmediation to resolve that issue.
(28:48):
But when we're talking aboutfamily violence or we're talking
about alcohol abuse or some ofthose different things, I mean
there is a way, there is aprocess which is accelerated and
different than let's go tomediation and then have a
temporary orders hearing bywhich we can do that.
But your lawyers got to know,got to know that process.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think sometimes you can learn
a lot by explaining yoursituation.
And if it is a more complexarea of law that say your lawyer
doesn't know the answer to it'sthat they're going to tell you
let's, I don't know the answerto that, let's wait and let me
(29:27):
find the answer, instead of justkind of riffing and making it
up.
That's the thing they don'ttell you about law school is
that you're not necessarilylearning every intricacy of the
law.
You're learning how to find theanswer that you need, the
answer of the question, and aslawyers with a number of years
(29:48):
of experience, we do this day inand day out.
We know a lot of the answers tothe questions.
We know how to paint thepicture for the judge.
We know litigation strategy.
But quite often, especially infamily law, which is so unique,
and we see things that every daythat you say, well, I've never
seen that before.
There are a number of timeswhere you need to take a step
(30:12):
back and say I don't know theanswer to that, but I know where
to find the answer.
Instead of making something upor hedging, I'm just going to
tell you the truth.
Let me figure that out and I'llget that back to you.
If your lawyer does that, Iwouldn't look at that as a bad
thing.
Like well, they don't know whatthey're talking about, they
don't know the nuts and thebolts.
I would take that as a goodthing that they're not going to
(30:35):
BS you.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Absolutely.
That is something that I havedone and will do.
If I'm in a consultation,especially, and a client poses a
unique situation or a uniquequestion to me and I'm not
exactly sure what the answer is,I'll tell them listen, I'm
going to research that.
I'm going to maybe talk withsome colleagues of mine, I might
(30:57):
look into some case law, butI'm going to figure that out and
I'm going to get back to youand I'm going to let you know.
I think that's particularlyimportant to me because I don't
want to lose credibility with myclients.
What I don't want to do is BS aclient, like you just said, and
end up in a courtroom and end upon the wrong end of that and
then come to find out I didn'tknow what I was talking about
(31:18):
and now the client knows it too,and I probably spent a lot of
money and a lot of theirresources for them to find out
that I'm a fool.
And I'd rather go back to themlater and say listen, I did what
I needed to do.
Here's the truth or here's howI think that's going to play in
court.
What do you want us to do now?
I've at least in my experience,every client I've ever done
that with, I feel like, hasalways been satisfied with me
(31:42):
taking that extra time to figureout the answer to that question
or to that issue.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
You're a prospective new client and you're trying to
figure out.
Does my lawyer know the nutsand bolts of family law?
What are some of the thingsthat you would be looking for?
What are some of the questionsthat you would be?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
asking, I think some of the biggest things would be I
think that you can tell a wholelot about a lawyer by doing one
of the things that we alreadytalked about, which is is there
anything that you need in thepresent that you need done right
now, and how do you get there?
And then I think the secondthing is and even though lawyers
may be very experienced at thefamily law process, I don't
(32:20):
think all of them are as goodabout explaining that process at
least to potential new clients.
I think that after you pass, isthere anything that I need in
the here and the now, and how dowe get there?
I think you need to ask anylawyer that you're thinking
about hiring how does theprocess work?
What's the timeline on some ofthese different issues?
(32:40):
Now, we both know that casescan last for months, sometimes
years, and there's often a lotof things that will come up in a
litigation that you can'tforesee.
But if people ask you specificquestions about stages in the
process, you can definitely givethem a good estimation about
how long it normally would takeif this or that or the other
(33:03):
thing occurs.
I feel like if your lawyerpotential lawyer can't make you
feel comfortable about, here'show I can get you what you need
in the here and the now, andhere's what the process should
look like from front to back,and here's approximately how
long it should take and here'show how much in a ballpark some
of these different things shouldcost.
That's probably not the rightlawyer for you.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Okay, so the next set of questions that you should
ask should probably be aboutresources.
And what resources does thislawyer have?
There are plenty of lawyers outthere that are solo attorneys
and they're excellent attorneys,but there comes a point when
you're just one person in oneoffice and you're in trial and
(33:48):
you've got a number of otherclients is that you just don't
have the resources in order tomeet the needs of all of your
clients.
And it's one of the reasonsthat at our firm, we have built
a team of 10 attorneys.
We've got a number of supportstaff that are backing up those
attorneys.
A team is important, but justthe resources that are
surrounding each of thoseattorneys and support staff and
(34:11):
when I talk about resources, Idon't just mean people, which
are important.
I'm with a variety of differentexperiences inside and outside
the courtroom people that youcan go to as an attorney.
You can go to your colleagueswithin the firm and say have you
been in front of this judgebefore?
Have you addressed this issue?
Or I have this problem in oneof my cases.
(34:35):
How would you attack this?
What would you file?
The colleague might even comeand say I actually had that
exact same issue and I alreadywrote a brief on it and then as
an attorney, you can take thatand, without having to bill that
client for writing a brand newbrief and doing all the
investigative work, you canrepurpose that, save the client
some money and you have an ideaof what that judge is already
(34:57):
going to do.
Having a team of people isreally important, but I also
mean the physical resources andmeaning.
You know our firm really placesa premium on technology.
We've got access to the latestform books, the latest research
(35:17):
technology with Westlaw andLexisNexis.
If there is somebody that weneed to do a background check,
we can do that within fiveminutes.
If you don't know where yoursignificant other, your spouse,
lives, we can usually track themdown and we can figure that out
.
But also resources meaningvendors.
(35:39):
You'll have a case that willcome in that ought to be a very
complex property case.
We have a cadre of certifieddivorce financial analysts that
we can call upon that cancontract with our folks and they
can provide complex financialadvice and they can collaborate
(36:00):
with us and they have experiencedoing so and doing well.
They can also testify in court.
We have a cadre of forensicaccountants and forensic
analysts that can go throughbank statements and they can
value businesses.
And these are people that wehave a relationship with and we
can trust.
And we've got certified divorcereal estate experts that know
(36:25):
how to sell a house and theyknow how to work with people.
So it's not only the people inthe firm, it's the people
outside the firm, it's the fullresources that are available to
a law firm.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Absolutely, and it absolutely makes a difference.
I can tell when I have a lawyeron the other side who clearly
has a lot less resources than wedo, and it makes a difference.
You can usually see it in thelegal paperwork that they file
with the court.
And if you go the distance andit comes to a trial or a
contested hearing, you and Iboth know you can be as
(36:57):
competent as you want to be, butit's not enough just to be
competent, to necessarily knowthe family code and to
understand how family lawprocess works.
(37:17):
There are so many other things,which is the reason why we have
and and spend the money andinvest the time to have those
kinds of resources at our firmbecause they make a difference.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Sure, and if you could hire a certified divorce
financial analyst or a forensicaccountant to do the work for a
fraction of the costs that wewould be doing, but they have an
expertise in it you want tohave that person doing the work
because we're not mathematicians, we're not financial analysts.
In fact, many folks in our firmwould probably say I went to
(37:51):
law school because I am not amath person.
That's right, but we know whereto find the people and we have
relationships with them and wehave a track record where
they've done a good job for usand it's finding a firm that has
those relationships.
So, in terms of phrasing, whatkind of questions would you ask?
Just generally ask whatresources are available to the
(38:12):
firm, both inside and outside,and tailor it to your particular
case.
If you've got a business, youwant to start asking questions
about business valuation.
If you have a complex financialestate, you want to start
asking questions about havingcertified financial planners,
certified divorce financialanalysts, on board your case
because they're going to be ableto provide you with the tax
(38:33):
advice and the financialplanning advice that your lawyer
can't or shouldn't be providingto you.
Tailor your questions to yourparticular case and ask if your
law firm has or your lawyer thatyou're looking at has those
resources available to them,absolutely.
And then the last question orset of questions that you should
(38:55):
ask your potential lawyer in aninitial consultation would be
about communication, and I knowfor your clients you're one of
the most accessible lawyers.
You're available to yourclients if you need them.
What kind of questions shouldfolks be asking their
prospective lawyer aboutcommunication?
Speaker 2 (39:14):
I definitely think that you want to ask your
potential lawyer.
You know how long is it goingto take If I reach out to you,
if I have an issue.
When can I expect a response?
You know, at our firm we try tobe very rigid, for good reason,
about having a 24 hour responserule, and usually it doesn't
even take 24 hours for us torespond.
(39:34):
It's usually more like 12 thatbusiness day, next business day
who are firing or looking for anew lawyer, firing an old lawyer
, former lawyer?
And oftentimes one of thebiggest reasons why they're
doing that is because they justdon't feel like they matter,
because they can't get a hold oftheir attorney.
(39:56):
And in some cases, you know, insome situations it's that they
can't get a hold of the attorney.
They can get a hold of everyoneelse at the law firm the
paralegal, the support staff,whatever it might be but they
can't seem to get the answersthat they need out of the lawyer
themselves and they just feellike their case doesn't matter.
And so I definitely think thatit's important when you're in
(40:18):
that consultation to ask themyou know how long will it be
before you respond if I have anissue and I think, secondarily
maybe just to ask them howimportant do you think it is the
lawyer to timely communicatewith clients?
Now I have potential clientsthat come into my office who
will say I met with anotherlawyer and now I'm meeting with
(40:38):
you and I ask them that samequestion.
And they laughed, you know,essentially as if it's as
important as I want to make itand I'll get to you when I get
to you, and that just seemsabsurd and ridiculous to me.
I mean, you know, not only justbecause it's not very good
business, but you know these arepeople, these are their
(40:59):
families, these are their lives.
It's very important to them,and especially early on in the
process.
You know people are scared,people are nervous, people are
anxious, and so they need thatreassurance.
And I think it's very importantwhen you sit down in that
consultation, to ask them thosetwo questions and see what they
(41:19):
have to say about them.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Thank you very much for joining me.
David is the lead attorney atour League City office at Hunt
Law Firm.
If you'd like more informationon our firm, you can visit
familylawyerkatiecom.
If you are watching us onYouTube, please like the video.
Please subscribe to the channelso you'll get future podcasts.
We also have a number of othervideos on the website that you
(41:44):
can see, and if you're listeningto this on Spotify or Apple
Podcasts or another podcastmethod, please subscribe.
You'll get these deliveredright to you every week, and if
you need to find us by phone,you can call us at 832-315-5494.
(42:05):
See you next time.
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