A Family Attorney Can Minimize Stress During a Divorce

A family attorney can help you through the difficult process of going through a divorce.  Many psychologists equate getting a divorce to someone you love dying because of the emotional strain that it can cause. How long people are married and whether or not they have children can make getting a divorce even harder.  With emotions high and dramatic life changes, it is important to work with a family attorney that you can trust.

An experienced attorney will help make the entire process go smoothly.  A divorce that is handled correctly can be done with minimal contention and will help decrease the overall stress of the process.  Going it alone or working with an inexperienced attorney can make it much worse by increasing tensions and delaying the process overall. 

When possible, a family attorney can help you and your spouse to settle many of the divorce issues outside of court.  This saves time, money, and heartache.  When going to court there is no certainty of the outcome so reaching an amicable resolution is often the best course.  Certain things like dividing up bank accounts and retirement plans can be handled by a family attorney at a settlement conference.  Debts can be divided up at the same time along with the assets that they are secured to.  While it isn’t always possible to reach an agreement, most couples find that they can agree on the division of more things than they expect, when working with an experienced lawyer or mediator.  Settling some of the issues helps both parties see that they can reach a resolution and don’t have to fight about every little detail.  It can set the stage for completing the divorce in a civilized fashion rather than allowing it to escalate into something contentious. 

A divorce can be even more difficult when children are involved.  Unlike a house or retirement account, you cannot “divide” children.  A custody schedule is typically set along with child support payments, but joint decisions will generally need to be made by the parents until the child reaches eighteen years of age.  Joint decisions require the ability to have a conversation and be civil with one another for years to come.  How the divorce is handled will often determine whether or not this is a possibility.  Couples that have an extremely contentious divorce often end up needing to pay a mediator long term in order to facilitate communication about the children. A family attorney can help prevent the situation from escalating to this level. 

When hiring a divorce attorney, each party can hire their own legal counsel, or you can work together through one family attorney.  Couples who believe they can reach a resolution with help often work with one single attorney.  The couples that know they are fighting tooth and nail from the beginning need to hire their own individual advocate.  The Law Office of Paul R. Berko provides expert legal advice to couples undergoing a divorce.  For a consultation call, (516) 746-4211.

A Family Attorney Can Help Non Married Couples

It is common for people to remain unmarried while living together and a family attorney can help provide the legal security these couples need.  Many people prefer to live together without legally becoming married, whether it’s for financial, personal, family, or religious reasons. The challenge is that these couples often leave themselves open to legal conflict because they don’t have the same legal protections that married couples do.

This was a particular challenge for same-sex couples that wanted to become married, but weren’t allowed to.  In 2011, the New York legislature made same-sex marriage legal in the state of New York and now these couples have the same legal rights as heterosexual couples that choose to get married. 

Many people think that a family attorney only works with people who are married or are getting a divorce.  This is not the case.  A family attorney works with all types of family units and the individual’s lifestyle defines what makes up their family.  New York attorney, Paul R. Berko works with unmarried couples to ensure that their legal rights are protected.

Here are some of the ways a lawyer can help unmarried couples:

• Adoption.  Many couples would like to have children and consider adoption as a means for doing so.  If you are unmarried there should be agreements in place that protect the rights of both of you as equal parents under the law. 
• Accounts.  Couples that do not become married have no legal right to each other’s assets upon illness or death.  A family attorney can ensure that the other partner has the access they need to pay for medical bills or expenses in the event of an accident and receive the account funds if the other partner dies.  Protecting your partner financially is an important step to take before you become ill. 
• Assets.  Homes, cars, boats, and other hard assets typically have a title associated with them.  This is a legal document that spells out who owns that asset.  Titling them correctly is essential for protecting the rights of both partners.  If it is done incorrectly and one partner dies their ownership will not automatically transfer to the surviving partner.  Instead, it could go through probate where other family members have the opportunity to fight for their share of the assets.  This can make a stressful time even worse and can be completely avoided by working with a family attorney. 
• Financial Considerations.  Many unmarried couples still want to have agreements in place that spell out what would happen if they split up.  Similar to a prenuptial agreement this can outline who would keep possession of which assets and if one partner would be responsible for paying the other a monthly alimony payment.  Child support can be settled in court or included in this document. 

Unmarried couples have to work harder in order to make sure that their rights are protected.  This requires the help of a skilled family attorney.  To learn how The Law Office of Paul R. Berko can help you call, (516) 746-4211.