Finding the best Seattle, Bellevue, or other local area divorce lawyer for your family law case in Washington State can be difficult and confusing, especially since it requires making a judgement during a time of emotional distress. It is, however, crucial to ensuring you obtain the best possible divorce case outcome.
Take Your Time to Research the Divorce Attorney’s Qualifications
When you decide to obtain a divorce, it can be tempting to want to just ‘get it over with’ and hire the first available family law attorney. However, choosing the first divorce attorney you find without reviewing available information about them is risky. The wrong divorce attorney can result in unnecessary and unproductive litigation, an extended divorce process, unnecessary and unreasonable fees, emotional upset, a poor legal outcome, and future conflict with the other spouse that could easily have been avoided.
Consider Personal Recommendations from a Trusted Friend, Relative, or Other Professional
A relative, trusted friend or other professional’s personal referral of a Washington State divorce attorney based on their own experience as a former client or contact is a good starting point. If possible, it is also advisable to review legal documents from a former client’s case, and, in particular, pleadings prepared by their former attorney and submitted to the court and resulting court orders, to assess the quality of the attorney’s work product.
Keep in mind, however, that a negative court ruling does not necessarily mean an attorney did a poor job, and the reverse is true as well. King County commissioners and Judges, as well as those in Snohomish and Pierce County have substantial discretion in deciding how to interpret facts, access each party’s and witness’s credibility, and apply the law to those facts.
Make Sure the Lawyer is Experienced and a Member of Family Law Professional Organizations
Make sure the lawyer is experienced in the area of family law, has handled divorce and family law cases will similar facts as yours, and is a member of family law related professional organizations such as the Washington State Bar Association’s Family Law Section. With experience comes not only knowledge and expertise, but the ability to accurately forecast court outcomes and choose the best, most reliable, least risky and most affordable manner of obtaining a successful outcome. An experienced divorce attorney will also be familiar with successful strategies, and possess a wide network of experts on which to rely for appraisals, evaluations, and other key expert witnesses that can make or break a case.
Check the Divorce Lawyer’s Reviews, Ratings and Community Reputation
Information on the internet can be a valuable source of information. Reviews from prior clients are an important indicator of client satisfaction. Reviewing the profiles and reviews of top AVVO rated attorneys, for example, can help you narrow down your search.
Referrals from other attorneys, and/or recommendations from other divorce lawyers in the same field and within the same locale, is also an important factor to take into consideration.
Interview and Ask Tough Questions of Potential Attorneys
Do not rely merely on word of mouth and ratings to make your decision. You also need to form your own opinion based on an initial consult. After narrowing down your candidates, contact them to schedule one. You can immediately remove lawyers you do not feel comfortable with, trust on a personal level, or appear uncaring or unsympathetic from consideration. A solid level of ease and comfort in the presence of your divorce attorney, and trust in his or her abilities and communications is very important.
Ask them tough questions. While they may be”tough” to you, an experienced attorney will have been asked and answered the same questions repeatedly. A qualified divorce attorney will be willing and able to answer all of your legal questions, and address all of your concerns, with patience and clarity.
They should also be able to discuss the pros and cons of alternative legal strategies such as attempting settlement before filing for divorce so the case is filed as an uncontested divorce, versus filing a contested divorce and using litigation and trial or resolving disputes by more amicable means of settlement through mediation, arbitration and/or collaborative divorce. At the end of the consult, the divorce attorney should be able to give you a concise, structured, clear recommendation for the best strategy in your case.
Ask About the Divorce Attorney’s Billing Practices and Fees
Ask the prospective lawyer about their billing practices and request an estimate of fees based on which legal strategy is utilized. A lawyer who becomes defensive, evasive, or angry should not be chosen.
Distinguish Good Lawyering from Good Marketing
Be cautious of divorce lawyers who give an overly optimistic description of the outcome. You may assess this by comparing it to both information obtained in your own divorce research and descriptions provided by other lawyers you’ve consulted.
A firm’s awards, accolades and special recognitions may have been earned by only one attorney in the firm and not be the attorney assigned to you. Moreover, if you are assigned the attorney with the awards and recognitions, make sure they will be the one actively working on your case and not delegating all their work to a young associate.
Descriptions suggesting special expertise or focus in men’s or women’s divorce issues is not important – at least from a legal sense. Though there may exist certain perceived biases in the law, choosing a Seattle or Bellevue divorce lawyer based on labels like “Divorce law for men” or “Divorce law for women” makes little sense. The law is gender neutral, and lawyers are trained to make persuasive legal arguments regardless of their client’s gender. Since Judges are ethically required to rule without gender bias, Seattle divorce lawyers who make legal arguments based on a personal biased view of either gender may actually jeopardize your case outcome.
Red Flags To Look out For in a Potential Divorce Lawyer
The following is a list of “reg flags” that should cause concern:
1) A public record of legal malpractice;
2) An ongoing pattern of poor reviews based on similar complaints;
3) A relative, friend, or acquaintance’s poor opinion of the attorney candidate for clearly articulated reasons;
4) An inability or unwillingness to estimate anticipated fees;
5) Poor communication and lack of empathy or concern for your case during the consult; –
Summary
We hope this article has been informative. At Weintraub Law Office, we welcome the opportunity to serve as your divorce attorney. Please call Weintraub Law Office at +1 425 374 4045 or contact us online to learn the scope of legal services we provide and schedule a low fee consult.
I would imagine looking for an attorney during one of these situations must be so stressful. There are so many to chose from it’s hard to know where to even begin. This article really helps to slim down the choices, even if just a little bit. I think it is really smart to check reviews and rating from past clients. That will give you a pretty good idea of how the lawyer is received by the public.
Taking your time is pretty good advice when you are going to do anything. But, especially for any kind of legal help. Hiring a divorce attorney is not something that you want to take lightly. If you hire someone who isn’t a good attorney, then you might not win your court case.
Thank you so much for the tips on how to find the best divorce lawyer. I really like the tip to look at a lawyers reviews and ratings. You can tell a lot about a lawyer by the reviews previous clients have written about them. If the reviews are positive, then you can assume that the lawyer does a good job.
Thanks for sharing this advice on choosing a good divorce attorney. I had no idea that it doesn’t make sense to look for an attorney that advocates more experience for a certain gender. It is nice that the government doesn’t have gender specific laws relating to divorce. Having any sort of difference implies different treatment for each gender, which is a form of racism.
It definitely makes sense to do your research when looking for a divorce attorney, instead of hiring the first one you come across. There aren’t many situations I’ve seen where picking the first option available ends up being the best possible choice. Given how big of a process divorce is, I doubt anyone would want to be stuck with a bad lawyer throughout the process.
Very useful tips on how to find a divorce lawyer who can handle your case. Each tip should really be taken into consideration. Good job!
Thank you. All feedback is appreciated.
One of the things my friend recommended when looking at these types of lawyers, and he really stressed this, was to take you time just like you said. I am inclined to agree with your point that research is really important for things like this, especially with so much risk involved. Great points overall in finding the right person for whatever family matters you may have.
Thanks for sharing this advice on getting the best lawyer for your family law case. I definitely agree that it is important to look for red flags when it comes to making a decision. There are many lawyers out there with a ton of positive attributes, but you need to be sure that you can trust them 100%. Just looking at their record can really help give you some peace of mind. I know that I would feel better knowing my lawyer had a very strong track record!
I like your tip about taking time. If you are going through a divorce it’s going to take a long time, so it’s important to spend time finding a good family lawyer. Together you are going to work on your case for a long time, so it’s best to have someone you can trust.
It’s true that there are a lot of lawyers out there that are qualified to help you. I’ve been thinking about getting some help finding a lawyer myself. I’m not going through a divorce right now, but I have other problems that need some expertise. I like the idea of going off recommendations.
Thank you for mentioning the red flags to look out for when hiring a lawyer. That is very helpful. Also, thank you for talking about how to distinguish a good lawyer from good marketing. Making sure to ask all the right questions will really show who knows their stuff. Great post.
Thanks for outlining the red flags, it is hard to know what to NOT look for. Knowing the kind of lawyer you’re looking for and what you need from a lawyer will make your search a lot faster. These tips are very helpful in the attorney search!
Considering the person recommendations from friends and family is a great way to find a family law attorney for your divorce. When my parents got divorce, my dad hired a lawyer who had worked for his sister before, and my mom hired a friend-of-a-friend. Because they trusted the people recommending the lawyers, they felt more comfortable hiring them.
My friend is going to be getting a divorce soon, and he wants to hire someone to help him with everything. That being said, I really appreciate you talking about this and letting me know how he can go about finding the best divorce lawyer. I’ll make sure I show this to him right away so that he can start looking.
My thanks to the lawyer for taking the time to get these suggestions out there! I have been looking for a good lawyer forever, and have actually worked with a few that I did not end up liking very much. These tips should help me to screen for the right candidate. By the way, how does one find out if an attorney is a part of a family law professional organization?
You’re very welcome. In response to your question, asking the lawyer is the most direct way of finding out. Lawyers also typically list their membership in professional organizations on their website profile page. If necessary, you may also contact your local county (i.e., the King County Bar Association in Seattle) and the Washington State Bar Association to confirm membership in the family law section.
I think the suggestion you give to consider personal recommendations from friends and family was really helpful insight when looking for a lawyer. I think that when you get personal referrals, you will be able have first-hand insight on how the particular lawyer works and communicates. Additionally, as you suggest, you can also have access to things like documents and pleading prepared by the attorney, which will give you insight on how they organize and present their case. Overall, getting referrals gives you a quality insight about whether or not you will be able to be successful in working well and effectively with the lawyer. Thank you for sharing!
One of the things that you need to keep in mind when searching for a divorce lawyer is their experience. You wouldn’t want to dive into a divorce with someone who hasn’t dealt with one before. Save yourself a bit of trouble and research the person you are about to hire. It is also a good idea to ask them questions about their job history and experience, just to be sure.
My spouse and I have been struggling as a couple for about a year now. We have gone to therapy and done everything we could to make it work, but it just hasn’t made things better. We have talked about divorce quite a bit over the past few weeks and I think that it might be the best option for us. I like your tip about taking your time when it comes to hiring a family lawyer. These tips will definitely help me through the process. Thanks for sharing.
These red flags that you posted are very helpful. I want to get the best lawyer I can, and these tips like malpractice or bad reviews and the others will help me pick the best on I can find. Thanks for the post.
I like what you said about making sure the one with the awards is going to be the one actually working with your case. I never realized multiple people from the business would look it over and work on it. Now that I know that, I will be sure to ask who will be working on it.
Going through divorce and family troubles is never easy and causes a lot of legal issues. With that being the case, it’s smart to have a good family lawyer to represent you and help fight what is yours legally. I’m grateful for these services and all that they do for us.
Me and my wife have decided that it is time to seperate and I want to make sure that I have a good lawyer to help me through the process. I really liked your tips about red flags to look for in a lawyer. I think these will be really helpful moving forward. Thank you for sharing.
I appreciate your comment about taking your time to find a good lawyer. I agree with you, it may be tempting to just find any lawyer and be done with it. However, court decision can influence your life, so you have to take your time and not rush. I am helping my sister with her divorce, and I am spending a lot of time researching and making calls.
I love the tips you shared about asking interview questions of potential attorneys. Each new client really should be like a new job interview for an attorney. I hadn’t realized that until recently, but I will definitely make it a habit to ask lots of questions to make sure my new attorney is the right fit!
I definitely need to find the best lawyer out there and I have a few friends of mine that have great lawyers. I’ll try out your recommendation to ask friends and family if they have any good recommendations when it comes to lawyers. Thanks so much for the help, this will help my case for sure!
Nice post! Hopefully people will find best tips from this blog. Thanks for writing helpful advice for finding a divorce lawyer.
Finding a divorce lawyer is extremely important! I liked that you stressed the importance of taking the time to research a lawyer’s qualifications before hiring them. I think that doing this will allow you to make an educated decision on which lawyer to hire! After all, you only want the best to represent you during your case. What do you think is the best way to research a divorce lawyer’s qualifications?
Getting a divorce can really be difficult, especially if you are the father. My wife and I recently decided to call it quits so we are both looking for lawyers. We have four kids between us and I want to be able to see them as much as possible. I believe that if I find someone to represent me well in the case, it will go smoothly.
I like your tip about billing, because it seems very helpful. I wouldn’t want to get into a frustrating billing situation with an attorney. Being upfront about pricing and payments is really important for me. I need to be able to adjust my budget appropriately, so I’ll keep your advice in mind. Thanks.
When looking for a good lawyer, I do think it is important to get recommendations from your family and friends. However, I think it is more important to meet with a couple of lawyers before choosing one. Ask them all the same tough questions and compare their answers. Also, make sure they are someone you are comfortable with and make sure their answers are specific and easy to understand.
For simpler cases in which the parties are agreeable, 3 years of experience in the family law practice area may suffice. For more complicated or high conflict cases, I recommend an attorney with at least 5-7 years of experience. In general, the more complex or high conflict the case, the more years of family law experience you’ll want your lawyer to have.
My husband and I have been talking, and I think I will need to hire a divorce attorney soon. I agree with what you said about considering personal recommendations because that sounds like a good way to choose someone you can trust. My friend just went through a divorce, so I will see if she has any recommendations.
I think that taking time to do some research about an attorney before hiring them is good advice. In addition, meeting them beforehand to ask questions can help you get to know them. That way you can tell is they will be a good fit with you and that they are qualified to work on your case.
Thanks so much for sharing all of this advice on finding the best divorce attorney! I had no idea that the reputation of the lawyer among his/her peers would be a good thing to look for. However, it definitely makes sense to do that. When other attorneys have worked with the person you are considering, they could tell you if he/she is someone who plays by the rules throughout a case!
You’re welcome. 🙂
I think research and asking around is so crucial, for anything. You need to find the best for you, even if it’s a little more expensive, it’s worth it. It’s weird to think about interviewing an attorney, because they are the professionals, but it’s good to find what you’re looking for. These are great tips, thanks!
I like the idea of using the internet as a resource for evaluating a lawyer. I don’t have any friends that can recommend a divorce lawyer to me, so I think I’ll turn to reviews and ratings. My wife and I haven’t been on the same page for a while now. I think I’ll start searching for a good lawyer this weekend.
I’m going to school with hopes of becoming a lawyer. I’m not sure what kind of lawyer I want to be yet though, so I figured that I research on the different lawyers there are to try and become. This helped me see what divorce attorneys do and what people look for in them, and I think that this will be the route I take.
I’m glad to hear the information was useful to you, and perhaps others, in ways not anticipated. Best of luck to you!
I appreciate your tip on checking a lawyers reviews and reputation. I imagine that with a sensitive issue like divorce you would want to take your time to find the most qualified person to represent you. My sister and her husband recently split up, I hope for her sake she took time to research a good lawyer.
I think it is wonderful that you caution people to keep an eye open for the difference between good lawyering and good marketing when their searching for an attorney. As the article points out, even if the firm has won some kind of award, that doesn’t mean you’ll end up working with the attorney that won that award for the firm. It’s much more important to focus on finding an attorney that understands your needs and how to best win your case over looking for ones with a lot of shiny gold trophies.
I really love your tip about doing your research and making sure that the divorce lawyer has the right experience. My sister is filing for divorce against her husband and she is currently looking for the right person to help her through this whole process. Having someone who knows what they are doing can really help in a situation such as this. Thanks for the great advice!
Thanks for the post. This is great information. like you say, going off of the experiences of people and trust is going to be a great start to finding an attorney. I think just about everybody knows someone that has been divorced. They can definitely tell you what they wish they would’ve known before they got an attorney, and help you to not make the same mistakes.
I appreciate your tip on considering recommendations from a trusted friend when looking for a divorce attorney. I would imagine that a good friend could probably give you a quality recommendation for a divorce lawyer if they have gone through a separation as well. My sister is getting divorced soon so maybe she should ask her friends for a recommendation for a good attorney.
Bo, what a great advice that you mentioned about distinguishing a good lawyering practice. It’s actually something that I would need to take notes of because of how much competition there is in my area between these law companies. I guess the showing of awards and trophy are what lawyers show off a lot when it comes to proofing how good they are. That to me is good and it has me wanting to maybe set an interview with their best lawyer on my divorce case.
My sister is getting divorced and is in need of a divorce lawyer. I like how you mentioned making sure that the lawyer is a professional and that they have expertise. I’ll have to make sure my sister finds a well-versed lawyer and that she is wary of overly optimistic lawyers.
I’m a believer in checking reviews and ratings on the internet. Sometimes you can’t believe everything, so it’s good to be objective, and get as much information as you can so you can make a good judgement. I liked what it said about distinguishing good lawyering from good marketing. I never thought about that, but it makes sense that you should really do some digging.
I like your idea on looking at a divorce lawyer’s reputation before you hire them. I would imagine that finding out how they are view in the community would be a helpful way to choose someone who is reliable. My sister is going through a separation right now so when she decides to hire a divorce lawyer she should probably find someone who is well regarded in the community.
I really like your idea of asking others that you know for references of attorneys they’ve worked with and even checking the paperwork from their case to see an example of how the attorney works. Getting a reference is so much better than starting from scratch because you get pointed in a direction and find an attorney that someone else that you know and trust liked. You still have to do your research on the lawyer suggested to you, but it’s much easier to do this than to start from nothing. I’ll have to remember to try that if I ever need to find an attorney.
I would never try to get a divorce without a lawyer. I have heard a lot of stories about how hard it is to do that. So, your tips are really helpful. I appreciate how you talked about asking tough questions of any potential attorneys, and comparing their answers.
I really liked your advice to look at a lawyer’s reviews from prior clients before hiring them. I would imagine that this would be a great way to get an idea of the quality of a lawyer’s work. It could help to start by looking for referrals from friends who have used a family lawyer in the past.
I didn’t realize that you can look up reviews or ratings for lawyers. That could be a really great way to find the best lawyer for your case. I would want to look for someone who has worked on a case similar to mine. I bet I could find out a lot by reading reviews.
I definitely agree with your tip on checking the lawyer’s reviews, ratings, and reputation. Like you said, this is a great way to gauge client satisfaction. It is especially helpful to look for reviews from people who were in similar situations to you so that you can see how their cases turned out.
I agree that you should take the time to research your divorce attorney’s qualifications. You went on to say that you should consider personal recommendations from a trusted friend. I think it’s a good idea to choose a divorce lawyer that makes you feel confident about your case.
Some of the red flags are so often missed by most people. Even if you get a recommendation from someone you know about the lawyer, it is still very important to check their history and some reviews, especially if you’re going to hire their services for something as big as divorce!
Very well explained. I really appreciate the insight here in this post and confident it’s going to be helpful to me and many others. Thanks for sharing all the information.
I like your idea on how you should check a divorce lawyer’s reviews before you hire them. I would imagine that you would want to find someone who is properly liked by past clients. My sister is looking for a divorce lawyer so she’ll have to check reviews before she hires anyone.
It states in the article that you should check the reviews, ratings and community reputation of the attorney, and that a good way to do that is online. I’ve been looking for a divorce attorney, as me and my soon to be former husband are going through a divorce. I use the internet for all sorts of things, so it should be easy to look up reviews for a couple different attorneys. Thanks for the blog.
I like that you recommend to ask the attorney or lawyer tough questions. Perhaps you might want to put together a list of questions that you could possibly ask. I think that it would be OK to ask questions you wouldn’t know how to answer yourself.
Thank you for all this great information about choosing a divorce lawyer! One thing that I never considered is that you say to interview them and form your own opinion. It would be nice to make sure that you are going to get along with them in the end.
My brother is currently in the process of divorce, and we want to make sure he gets the best lawyer possible to help him with his case. It’s important that he finds someone he can trust and that has experience. As you said, recommendations are a great way to find a professional that has provided good service previously. Thanks for the tips.
I like your comment on how you need to check a divorce lawyer’s qualifications. It would seem that you would want to find someone who is experienced in family law because this would ensure they will do well in your case. My sister is getting divorced so she’ll have to find someone who is qualified in family law to represent her.
Thanks for the tips for finding a divorce attorney. My best friend is getting divorced, and we are trying to find a family law attorney to help him fight for custody of his kids. I like that you mentioned to make sure they can tell you the pros and cons of different strategies so you can be more informed in your decision. That is something we will definitely ask about.
When I was in college, I remember learning the importance of choosing a good attorney to help you through a case. Now, my cousin is asking for my advice to find a lawyer that fits these criteria. It was a good point that tough questions are something they constantly deal with and should have no problem answering them.
Thanks for sharing! I like how you mentioned about checking reviews, ratings and community reputation of the divorce lawyer in order to be sure of the quality of the work. My friend is going to split up with his wife, so I’ll definitely share this useful information with him in order to help go through this process.
Wow, I had never thought of asking some tough questions to a potential attorney but now that I think of it, I think that would be a great idea. Just like you talked about, you should not rely on word of mouth and reviews alone when making your decision on which attorney to hire. Putting them on the spot will help you understand how they are like under pressure. Thanks again for sharing this information with me, and I will make sure to tell my little brother because he is currently looking for a divorce lawyer.
It’s great to know how to find a family lawyer. I agree that checking online reviews is a vital step. My sister is hoping to get a divorce soon, so I’ll help her out by looking up some potential lawyers online!
Definitely some great tips and advice on how to find the right divorced lawyer. Its so important to keep in mind when going through this experience. Hiring a mediator can be a good option, but sometimes
the best is hiring a lawyer to make sure everything is being handled in the best legal fashion. Thanks for sharing!
I hadn’t ever really taken into consideration just how important it would be to conduct your own interview of a lawyer prior to hiring them. My friend is about to go through a divorce, and I think she’s been worried about how the custody of her children will play out. I’m sure if she took the time to interview potential lawyers, it would be easier for her to identify which lawyer will give her the best chance at a favorable outcome to her children’s custody.
I like what you had to say here about taking your time to look for qualifications that you want. A friend of mine has been looking for an attorney, and I think that this information would be really beneficial in helping her find an attorney that can really connect with her. As you said, you need to make sure that your attorney is licensed, qualified, and has a lot of experience. Thanks again!
Thanks for discussing about how to find the best divorced lawyer. Definitely some great tips and advice to keep in mind when going through this experience. Divorce is something that is becoming more prevalent in Western society. So Hiring a mediator can be a good option, but sometimes the best is hiring a lawyer to make sure everything is being handled in the best legal fashion. So I think it’s useful for many those who are looking for such info, I really appreciate you for sharing this informative article.
Thanks for suggesting that we find a divorce lawyer who has handled cases that are similar to yours so that you can be sure they have the best experience. My cousin and his wife are getting divorced, so he is wondering how to find the best attorney to help him get full custody of his daughter. I will be sure to tell him that he should try to track down a lawyer who has worked on other child custody cases so that you can be sure they know what they’re doing.
I appreciate your tip to look for a divorce attorney that you can meet with and interview early on. I also like how you said that they should be kind and control their temper at all times. My husband and I are trying to help my cousin find a good divorce attorney that will be calm and help her through this part of her life.
Thank you for your comment. I’m glad you found it helpful.
Thanks for the advice for choosing a family lawyer. A good friend of mine is getting a divorce soon, so I’ll be sure to tell him this. Hopefully, he can find someone who’s honest with him and is able to answer his questions, like you mentioned.
Thanks for pointing out that referrals from other attorneys are a good thing to take into consideration. My husband and I just argue a lot, and I’ve decided that it’s time for me to move on. I’ll have to follow your advice to find a good divorce attorney.
My cousin is going to be getting divorced in the near future. I appreciate how you point out the need to interview potential attorneys before deciding on which one to hire. I’ll pass this tip on to my cousin so she can get the best attorney possible for the job.