Our firm practices in a wide range of family law matters including divorce, custody, child support, visitation, maintenance and adoption. We represent both men and women.
There are basically two types of divorce: contested and uncontested.
An uncontested case is one where the parties are able to come to an agreement on all issues of the divorce, including child custody, visitation, division of assets, etc. without the need and costs of extensive litigation through court. Most uncontested cases can be completed with as few as one court appearance.
Even in an uncontested case, one attorney cannot represent both parties. One of the parties will be a client represented by our office and the other party typically participates Pro Se (i.e. without an attorney). However, the other party may want to hire an attorney to either review the documents prior to signing anything or to handle his or her entire case.
A contested case is one where the parties simply cannot come to an agreement on all the issues and ultimately must turn to the judge (juries aren't used in divorce cases) for a determination. Due to the complexities of contested cases, each party typically hires an attorney to represent them.