8/24/10 8/24/10

When you've been Served with Divorce Papers

Yesterday we discussed the process of serving your spouse with divorce papers. Today we are going to discuss what to do when you have been served with divorce papers. Being served with divorce papers really just means that the divorce papers have been properly delivered to you in a manner defined by South Carolina law. You can check out yeseterday's post about service of process to learn more about the proper ways to serve someone with divorce papers in South Carolina.So, now that you have been delivered your divorce papers, you don’t know what to do. Well, the first thing you should do is make a note of when you were served the papers. The date and time will be very important in your divorce case because of strict time lines that apply to both you and your spouse and if you wait too long to respond to the papers you could forfeit all or some of your rights you have as they relate to this case.Next, you should read all of the paperwork that you received and make a note of all of the questions you have and what you agree and disagree with in the paperwork. Many times in a divorce case the plaintiff’s attorney will request a hearing at the very beginning of the case called a temporary hearing where they will request some specific relief such as child custody, child support an alimony. The rules only require you to get five days notice of this hearing so you may need to act quickly to schedule a consultation with a divorce lawyer in order to have them represent you at the temporary hearing.After you have read through the paperwork, you should set up a consultation with an experienced divorce lawyer to find out about the divorce process and more specific information about your case. At this meeting you will also find out how much that lawyer charges to handle a case like yours. If you hire an attorney then they will begin the process of formally responding to the Summons and Complaint by filing an Answer on your behalf. If you decide not to hire an attorney then you should begin preparing your Answer and filing it no later than 30 days from the date you were served.

8/23/10 8/23/10

Serving Divorce Papers on your Spouse

When you file for divorce (or child custody, etc.) in South Carolina you must serve a Summons and Complaint on your spouse before the Family Court will have personal jurisdiction over them and be able to grant you a divorce. So, how can your spouse be served? There are several ways all of which are governed by the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure and South Carolina Family Court Rules.

Acceptance of Service

First, in many no-fault or uncontested divorce matters, the defendant spouse will come to your lawyer's office and pick up the papers voluntarily and sign a document called an Acceptance of Service which is an affidavit to the Court stating that your spouse has freely and willfully accepted the divorce papers.

Service by Certified Mail

The second option is for your spouse to be served by Certified Mail. If you are serving your spouse by Certified Mail it must be sent Return Receipt Requested and Restricted Delivery. The return receipt will allow you to prove to the Court that your spouse received the documents and the restricted delivery means that only your spouse can sign for the papers and not their roommate or someone else at the home.

Personal Service

The third option is to serve your spouse personally. That means a process server will take the divorce papers and hand them to your spouse. This is done at their home, work, or other place and is proven by the process server filing an Affidavit of Personal Service stating the date, time and location of the personal service. Sometimes this is the only way to serve someone because they are intentionally trying to avoid being served papers and they will not accept the certified mail. When serving your spouse in this manner neither you, any other person who is a party to this action or your lawyer can act as the process server.

Service by Publication

Finally, if you are unable to locate your spouse and you have made a good faith effort to find them, you can petition the Court for permission to serve your spouse by publication. This means you will run a Summons and Notice of the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the place where your spouse was last known to reside. This notice will run one time per week for three weeks.Now that your spouse has been served the case has officially begun...

8/3/10 8/3/10

You Shouldn't Be Your Own Divorce Lawyer

Facing a divorce is difficult. It is probably one of the hardest things you will go through in your life. There are lots of emotions and questions. Then you are learning to live on your own again and budgeting based on a single income rather than two. I also understand that a divorce can be a very expensive proposition. You are faced with dividing up marital assets that you may have accumulated over decades of marriage, not to mention the attorney fees and court costs. This cost often leads people to attempt to represent themselves in the family court. Often times, people represent themselves even when their spouse has hired an attorney to represent their interests. In cases where there are no issues and no property to divide this might be okay, but if there are any issues that remain contested (child custody, support, visitation, alimony or property division) you should definitely have an attorney.(Aside: I know this looks self-serving coming from a divorce attorney, but I totally believe that it's true)

"A well-trained man knows how to answer questions; an educated man knows what questions are worth asking."
- E. Digby Baltzell (1955)

I like this quote. It reminds me about what a lawyer is supposed to do - that is, to know which questions are worth asking. A lawyer also knows the rules in the courtroom. How to make sure you ask the questions that are worth asking so you tell the judge everything he/she needs to know in order to decide the case the best way possible for you.

8/1/10 8/1/10

Your Favorite Posts of July 2010

In case you missed them when they were posted earlier, here are the top ten most-viewed posts for July 2010.

7/30/10 7/30/10

"Just Right": A parable of neckties and communicating with your lawyer

tiesjustright This morning I was putting on a tie. It’s a court day that means suit and tie. I was feeling good so I went for the dark gray suit, white shirt (with my initials on the cuff) and the red tie. My power suit. I threw the tie around my neck, passed it over itself a couple of times and pulled it tight. It was a little long and hung down way too low. So I untied it, made a few adjustments and went back to work tying it again. This time – too short. I was frustrated. Having a tie that is tied too long is okay, especially if you are going to wear a coat to cover it up, but a tie that is too short just looks tacky and odd. It’s just an inch or two either way but looks bad nonetheless. But as we work on tying the tie several times we find out where we need to position the tie so that we can get it tied “just right.” The more information we learn the better off we are (we look).So what does this have to do with your family law case or litigation in general? The more information you share with your attorney about yourself and the issues involved in your case the better off you are going to be. Sometimes clients don’t share some of the bad information with their attorney because they are afraid it will hurt their case. They “forget” about their criminal background, that they were abusive to the children, that they had addictive tendencies, that they didn’t do what they were previously ordered to do and so on. They hope everyone else forgets about these things too. The truth is the opposing side in your litigation does not forget about those things. They want to use it against you in the litigation. When you fail to share that information with your lawyer, he has no way to prepare a defense. Now, your worries have come to reality. You were scared that this information would hurt your case and it has, two-fold. Not only has the other side used the information against you, but because you withheld it from your lawyer you have prevented him from being able to mitigate the damage that it causes.Back to the necktie: the more information your lawyer has about your case the better job he can do in presenting it to the court on your behalf.

7/14/10 7/14/10

Who's In the Court Room?

One of the concerns I hear from clients as we are preparing for both contested and uncontested divorce hearing is who is going to be in the court room with us? Family Courts, except for cases like child abuse and neglect matters, are open to the public and that means any one could be sitting in on your hearing.The reality is that in nearly every case you will only find a handful of people in the courtroom with you:

Family Court Judge
Court Report - the person who is recording everything that is being said in the courtroom to keep an exact record of what is happening in there.
Deputy/Bailiff
Lawyers
Parties
Witnesses

That's pretty much it. Occasionally, a law student, newly minted lawyer, or paralegal student will be observing cases as part of a class assignment or bar requirement to practice.

7/13/10 7/13/10

Think Before You File

Sometimes it is good to take a deep breath before you go barging ahead in your case. I recently defended a Rule to Show Cause (contempt) hearing for a client filed by his wife. It appeared that she filed it as a retaliation for a letter that I mailed to her on behalf of my client. There were some pretty nasty allegations of contempt in the papers and my client was worried although he believed he had done nothing wrong. Just so you know, a rule to show cause hearing is what a person files to enforce a previous court order. If someone has not done what they were ordered to do by the court and they are found to have willfully disobeyed that order they can be punished by jail time up to one year, fines up to $1,500.00 and up to 300 hours of community service (or any combination of the three). This is serious!As we walked into the courtroom, my client's ex-wife appeared cocky and arrogant. She sought the contempt and attorney fees. However, she did not have a strong case. She let emotion and anger rule her rather than common sense. She did not tell the whole story to her attorney who was not ready for our defense. The rule to show cause was dismissed, and to add insult to injury for the ex-wife, she was ordered to pay for my client's attorney fees for defending the matter.So, next time you feel like you've been done wrong and you're ready to bring the shock and awe, take a step back, honestly consult with your lawyer and make a plan, but don't forget to look at the big picture and don't forget that anything can happen in the courtroom and quickly things can get turned around on you.

7/6/10 7/6/10

Solo Lawyer Working Out of the Office

Recently, I opened my own law practice here in Greenville, South Carolina. Right now, I am the only person working in the firm so I act as attorney, paralegal, boss, assistant, accounts payable, and everything in between. I have been extremely busy, and I have had some thoughts that perhaps some prospective clients may have some concerns about the type of attention that is paid to their case.I thought a real-life story would help in explaining how things are going so far. Several months ago, long before I opened this law practice, my wife and I planned a trip to Chicago to meet some friends and celebrate a friend's 30th birthday. We took in a couple of Cubs' games at Wrigley Field. We left on Thursday morning and planned to return to Greenville on Sunday. This meant that I would be out of my office for two days. In a family law practice, a lot can happen over two days and I was a little nervous.When I set up my practice, technology and the ability to practice from anywhere were high priorities for me. So I have set up systems, software, and utilize technology to allow me to do this. Some technology is as simple has having my iPhone, others things I use is Google Voice for telephone and voicemail, Google Apps for calendaring and e-mail, and Dropbox for storing documents and syncing between my computers.During the weekend, I was able to use Google Voice to route all of my incoming office calls to my iPhone. If I was in a place that would provide necessary confidentiality (like my hotel room) I would take the call. If I was unable to take the call, the voicemail would then be transcribed and e-mailed to me so I could immediately have access to the message. If it was very urgent, I could make arrangements to respond quickly. While sitting at the Friday afternoon Cubs' game, I received a voicemail from a client related to a custody/visitation matter. About the same time as her call, I received an e-mail with a fax message from the opposing counsel on that case. I was able to find a quiet corner of the stadium to call my client back to get an idea of what was going on. Then, I was able to send a fax back to opposing counsel - all from my iPhone in the upper deck at Wrigley Field.So, I hope this story will show you that my law practice is more personal and the way that I have carefully set it up will allow me to serve all of my clients effectively and promptly even though I may not perform all of my work behind the desk of my downtown office.