Divorce is a hard, if sometimes necessary, road to travel—but you can’t travel it alone. When you know how to find a good divorce attorney, you can lighten the logistic, emotional, and financial burdens of navigating divorce court and mediation. The right attorney on your side makes a hard journey less hard and the challenges of divorce less imposing, empowering you and your spouse to find the best and fairest compromises as you embark on new, separate paths in your lives.
In this article, we’ll go into detail about how to pick a divorce lawyer you can count on to help you set the divorce process behind you and look forward to the rest of your life—including signs of a good divorce lawyer you should look out for and specific Tennessee divorce law concerns to keep in mind.
Why Your Choice of Divorce Lawyer Matters
Don’t try to go through a divorce alone. Even if you and your spouse are mutually and amicably deciding to part ways, the vast majority of divorces are still a bumpy road and a stressful procedure under the best of circumstances—a process that tests your patience and composure like no other.
In Tennessee, where divorce involves both navigating family court as well as court-ordered mediation, independent legal consultation is absolutely essential for getting you through without losing your composure or your sanity. Knowing how to select a divorce lawyer you can rely on means you can:
Avoid Unsatisfactory Resolutions
The quality and appropriateness of your legal representation have a significant impact on the outcome of your divorce. Every divorce is different, and when you know how to find a good divorce attorney whose skills and areas of expertise align with your and your spouse’s situation, you can ensure a better outcome that protects both your financial interests and custody rights.
Minimize Emotional Stress
Divorce is emotionally draining. A great divorce lawyer provides sound advice and a clear path forward to ease the process. Having a divorce lawyer on your side you can trust as a confidante, in addition to a trial lawyer or mediator, helps you remain emotionally stable and avoid unnecessary stress through the arduous divorce process.
Ensure Financial Stability
Whatever side of divorce you’re on, an experienced lawyer who understands both your financial situations and goals post-divorce knows how to ensure a fair division of financial assets that will keep you both financially stable both during the divorce process and after you part ways.
Whether it’s working out how to divide up a shared family business or making decisions about alimony, a savvy divorce lawyer knows how to minimize the effects of divorce on your financial future.
Manage Your Case Efficiently
The last thing either you or your spouse want is for a divorce to drag on with no end in sight. The longer divorce lasts, the more it costs—both in money and in your emotional well-being. Knowing what to look for in a divorce lawyer and making the right choice minimizes the risk of a divorce case running into delays, racking up unnecessary costs, and wearing down your health and wellness.
With that said, let’s dive into the qualities your divorce lawyer should have:
What to Look For in a Divorce Lawyer
Not all divorce lawyers are created equal. While you can count on a good divorce lawyer having a sufficient grasp of family law in your state and a professional commitment to the law, the right divorce lawyer is someone you can count on to understand your unique situation and envision a fair, equitable solution for both you and your partner.
Expertise in Your Situation
When searching for the right divorce lawyer, pay careful attention to their area of expertise. A childless couple will need a different set of skills and expertise from their divorce lawyer compared to a couple with one or two children or a couple with five children. A high-asset couple in which both you and your partner have significant ownership interests in a family business and roughly equivalent financial situations will have different needs from a couple in which one partner is significantly less wealthy than the other.
Knowing how to find a good divorce attorney means knowing your needs first and foremost, and looking for a lawyer with advertised experience with couples like yours. Family law is highly specialized and you will need a lawyer who is extremely good at handling cases like yours—not a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.
Communication Skills
A divorce lawyer has the responsibility to walk a couple through the often confusing and labyrinthine world of Tennessee divorce courts. That means they need to be up to the task of answering your questions about the divorce process clearly and firmly so you know what to expect from the process. A divorce lawyer’s communication skills also ensure they can negotiate effectively with the opposing side.
Empathy, Compassion, and Professionalism
Divorce is a personal affair. The right divorce lawyer knows how to balance the personal and the professional. They can show understanding and compassion for your situation while also remaining professional and objective to ensure a fair, equitable outcome for both you and your partner.
Emotional intelligence and compassion is especially critical in divorce mediation, where you and your spouse will more than likely have to compromise on your differing visions of what your post-divorce situations look like.
At the same time, your divorce lawyer shouldn’t be overly emotionally invested in your case—that’s a warning sign they might be too compromised to make objective decisions. A judge has the final say in whether or not divorce settlements are fair or equitable, and if a lawyer can’t balance professionalism and emotional investment, they can end up dragging out the divorce process.
Availability and Accessibility
Lawyers are very busy people, but the right divorce lawyer knows how to make time for their clients. When you’re looking for a divorce lawyer, don’t be afraid to ask how often you can expect to hear from them. Make sure you’re clear about their typical response times, as well as how they typically handle communication (such as whether they prefer email, phone, or in-person).
Fee Structure
You need to be able to trust a good divorce lawyer with your money—and that means you need to feel confident you understand their fee structure so you don’t end up financially in over your head. Make sure to ask how their fees work—such as if they charge an hourly rate, a flat fee, or work on a retainer—and ask them to be upfront about any potential additional costs.
Signs of a Good Divorce Lawyer
Now that we’ve gone into detail about what to look for in a divorce lawyer, it’s time to look into some of the green flags you should look for in your research. As you browse Google and the websites for various family law firms and divorce law practices, keep your eyes peeled for signs of a good divorce lawyer, such as:
Positive Client Testimonials
Make sure to pay close attention to the ratings, reviews, and other forms of feedback left by former clients. Most firms will proudly display their most glowing testimonials on their website. Turning to Google reviews often yields a more diverse and larger selection of client feedback that gives you a richer sense of your potential lawyer’s track record.
You can also go to lawyer directories such as Justia and Avvo, which have ratings, reviews, disciplinary records, and more for lawyers in every state. You can sort by state and practice area to drill down into lawyers in your area who know how to help you. State bar associations, such as the Tennessee Bar Association, also have member directories that include ratings and reviews.
Strong Track Record
Speaking of their track record, knowing how to choose a divorce attorney also means knowing how to evaluate their record for wins. It’s not just about how many cases they’ve won—it’s also about digging into details about their case results. What does “success” look like? Have they won settlements or trials for clients in similar situations to your own?
Professional Affiliations
A good divorce lawyer touts his professional credentials as hard evidence of their skill and expertise. Look for membership in reputable legal organizations such as the American Bar Association—and especially look for relationships with local bar associations. Divorce law differs from state to state, and sometimes the processes will even differ slightly from one county jurisdiction to another. Finding a divorce lawyer in your area with experience in your area’s regional courts can ensure a much smoother divorce process.
How to Find the Best Divorce Attorneys in Tennessee
Knowing how to find a good divorce attorney is the most important thing you can know when you and your partner start talking about divorce. The right attorney makes all the difference between a divorce process that goes as smoothly as can be and takes as little a toll on your mental and emotional well-being as possible and a grueling process that leaves you and your ex-spouse uncertain and unsatisfied with their new positions in life.
In your search, we recommend consulting with no less than three family law attorneys who specialize in divorce cases. In your search, pay close attention to signs of a good divorce lawyer and red flags such as communication issues, condescending attitudes or a lack of compassion, promises that seem too good to be true, or opaque fee structures. Above all, be wary and trust your gut.
At MHPS Law, our practice includes recognized divorce attorneys well versed in navigating divorce courts in the state of Tennessee and the Nashville area. Whether you are a high-asset couple or a middle-class couple, whether you are looking for a trial lawyer or a divorce mediation attorney, we are confident we can find the right representative for you.
Start your search—or end it—with a consultation with our divorce attorneys today.
