How can a law firm be both compassionate and tough, you’re wondering? Can you simultaneous be concerned for everyone involved in a negotiation and yet fight to get what one person wants? That’s the challenge we take on every day at the Law Office of Lisa A. Vance, because both compassion and toughness are essential to our mission.
On one hand, we know how hard divorce can be on families. We know that people who are getting divorced started as couples in love, and some of them still may love each other, but know that they can’t live together as married couples. We also know that people getting divorced who have children love them, and hate that divorce creates confusion and even pain for their children.
Because of this, we bring a great deal of compassion to our practice. We recommend counselors to work with divorcing couples and their children when we see that it would help them with their emotions and would help them move forward in their divorces. We make sure that couples are focused on their children, and work with them to have civil, principled divorces that focus on issues and help them move on to happy post-divorce lives.
We also offer alternative dispute resolutions methods for those couples we think can benefit from them. Collaborative law allows a couple to negotiate a settlement outside of the courtroom, with each person represented by a lawyer committed to helping the couple find a solution that doesn’t involve litigation. Mediation, another means of divorcing without going to court, allows a couple to focus on negotiating a solution, with the help of a mediator, over a half-day or full-day session.
Opting for an alternative to court doesn’t mean you’re conceding, though. Those clients of ours who use collaborative law and mediation let us know what’s important to them, and we fight for them, seeking a win for our clients within the aim of a win-win solution. There are battles fought in negotiations, to be sure, but taking those battles out of the courtroom can make a huge difference for families who want resolution without rancor.
But we know how to fight in the courtroom when we need to. Some cases absolutely have to be fought through litigation – we can often make that determination even before the initial consultation, and we prepare accordingly. We fight with solutions in mind, with a plan that factors in your time and how quickly you want to settle your divorce, and with the knowledge of what the other side might do in response to how we attempt to move your case forward.
Some lawyers who claim to be good fighters are actually good at gumming up the works and filing motions that don’t move you closer to resolution. We prefer to fight with purpose, with each move geared toward either moving toward a solution or moving it past roadblocks the other side might be trying to put up.
If you’re looking for a compassionate and tough approach to your family law case, that factors in your family and your feelings while sticking up for you, check out the Law Office of Lisa A. Vance. We can help you determine which direction works best for you as you seek to resolve your divorce and move on, securing what’s of greatest importance to you.