Divorce, known as a dissolution of marriage proceeding in the State of California, is a process. Despite the emotional, financial, and relationship issues that are tied to the decisions that you may face, there is an ultimate goal that you are trying to achieve. Namely, you want to reach a settlement that takes into account your wants and needs and that protects your rights in the future.
The way in which you achieve this goal can be just as important and will depend on the OC family law attorney you choose. A lawyer who does not have your best intentions at heart may push for extending the process or avoiding compromise on issues that are not significant. Or, the lawyer may not use care in protecting his or her clients from going to trial.
As an OC family law attorney, Douglas McKeague’s objective is to help you get what matters out of the divorce. The first step is identifying what is important to you, the client. This takes place during the initial conversation and subsequent communications with Douglas. Clients can take comfort in knowing that he makes himself accessible to questions through text, email, and mobile and rarely charges for time spent answering these questions.
Once you and Douglas have laid the groundwork for what you need and what you want out of the divorce settlement, he will outline an approach for reaching this goal. Ultimately, his approach as an OC family law attorney is to avoid litigation if possible.
There are two important reasons why this is his methodology:
- Going to trial can be a more expensive, time-consuming process for the client. Court proceedings require many more filings, scheduled appearances, and resources than completing a divorce through a settlement between the parties.
- Trials leave the outcome of the divorce up to the judicial officer in charge. By and large, judges are fair, conscientious administrators of the law. However, they work under severe time constraints and cannot take into account the entire history and all of the preferences of the parties. This means that issues such as the division of property and child custody are decided without the type of input that the spouses might otherwise have.
With almost thirty years as an OC family law lawyer, Douglas is experienced in both the settlement and trial aspects of divorce. However, he emphasizes the former by helping clients refine their needs and wants until they become reasonable expectations. This is important because if the spouses have reasonable expectations about what they will receive through the divorce, a settlement has a better chance of satisfying both parties. In addition, there are fewer strained emotions and less anxiety, and both parties are able to walk away from the divorce proceedings without planning retaliatory legal actions.