Family Law

The public should be optimistic, yet concerned about a Rhode Island Divorce Lawyer's philosophy.

Why?

A Rhode Island divorce lawyer's philosophy may actually be a strong indicator of whether your case goes quickly and inexpensively or seems to be drawn out and more expensive than projected by the lawyer.

Consider these two different divorce lawyers who practice domestic relations law in Rhode Island.  (The names are ficticious.)

Lawyer Lucian Caltey is a businessman.  Lucian is in the business of making money and he has two children in private school.  Competition in Rhode Island for legal business is very competitive.  Mr. Caltey knows what it costs for his overhead and he knows how much it costs to meet his overhead and still make enough to meet his family bills each month.  As a lawyer and business man, Mr. Caltey has figured that he needs to obtain 16 new clients each month and that he must make at least $3,000 from each client, on average, in order to break even.  Otherwise he needs to bring in more clients or make more money on each client.

Imagine that you are a client and you engage Lawyer Lucian Caltey to represent you in a divorce.  Looking directly at him, Mr. Caltey's philosophy is that you are a paycheck to him and that he must make $3,000 from you before your case ends.

How might this affect your mindset when considering this lawyer as a person to represent you in your divorce matter?  How might it effect you if you want to be equitable and amicable and try to settle the case quickly?  Does your philosophy of how you want to resolve your case clash somewhat with this lawyer's philosophy that you are just another paycheck?

Now imagine Lawyer Justine Practitioner.  Justine is a businesswoman and she too is interested in making money, but Justine knows that there are already lawyers like Mr. Caltey out there.  As a business woman and lawyer, she knows that people deserve a good lawyer at a decent rate but that she knows that there are many lawyers like Mr. Caltey that already draw out cases unnecessarily.  Justine became a lawyer to help consumers, not to bilk them out of their hard earned money.  Justine's personal integrity does not allow her to become engrossed in finances so that her clients suffer for her lifestyle.  Justine knows that there are too many unknown factors in a divorce and she endeavors to make whatever income she makes by helping as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

Justine's philosophy is more like the investor who wants to purchase, improve and "flip" as many houses as he or she can for a profit in as short a time as possible and with as little aggravation as possible.

Does Justine's philosophy of how she practices law more in line with your thinking of who you might like for an attorney?

Would you rather be a client of a lawyer who's job it is to make money to survive by helping you move on as quickly as possible with as little difficulty and aggravation as possible?

This is merely a difference in law practice philosophies.

Do you want to identify the best choice of an attorney to suit you?  Try to observe the lawyers as they speak to you, what they say to you, what words they use, their attitude when they speak to you, are the surroundings humble or do they appear to shout at you about the lawyer and his or her extravagances.  Take all of the things you observe and try to determine what the lawyer's philosophy might be in practicing law.