Attorneys everywhere are governed by strict rules of ethics. Though it varies a bit from state to state, one thing is pretty constant: if we have a consultation with one party to a divorce action, we can’t then meet with (or be retained by) the other party.
So, if you wanted to be aggressive about it, you could meet with all “the best” attorneys in your area, creating a conflict of interest so those attorneys then couldn’t represent your husband. Yes, that is true even if you have the most cursory meeting with those attorneys. It is also true if you never had any intention of hiring a single one of them.
But is this a good strategy? Meeting with more attorneys than you can hire just to ensure that your husband can’t hire his choice?
I hear people recommend it all the time but I have to believe this doesn’t happen all that often because of the time and expense involved.
Most family law attorneys that I know of don’t offer a free consultation – and this is one of the reasons! If we’re going to remove ourselves from the possibility of representing others because of this one consult, we should at least be getting paid for that hour.
For another thing, we look at consultations differently than personal injury attorneys. Yours isn’t a case where we can sue the insurance company for $30 million dollars if you’re hurt badly enough. We can’t take cases at all on a contingent fee, anyway. (There’s no ‘you only pay if we get money for you,’ arrangement where we take 30-50% of what you receive in your division of assets in the divorce. Surely you can see how this would be problematic.) You only have what you had in the marriage and it’s going to be divided in two already. It’s only a multi million dollar case (to us) if you spend tons and tons of hours arguing over every detail.
Family law attorneys work on retainers and bill hourly. We’re billing for all the work that we do; you’ll see a full accounting each billing cycle (which is usually twice a month).
We’re also billing for the consultation. Consultations with family law attorneys in our area run somewhere between, on average, $200-500 for a half hour to an hour. Each firm or attorney may do things a little differently, but still – you’re paying for the time.
You’re also spending the time. Researching. Calling. Setting appointments. Attending them.
The cost is significant.
Is this a good strategy?
It might be, in the sense that there’s someone totally obnoxious that he might otherwise hire. A bad attorney on the other side can totally derail a case, increasing tensions and costs exponentially.
But … do you know who the bad attorneys are? Do you know who he’d hire, if he could hire anyone?
Or are you shooting in the dark – and, perhaps, shooting yourself in the foot when you could be spending your time and valuable mental energy on what you need to fuel your own successful case?
It’s hard to say and I can’t answer that question for you. Many women tell me that they’re worried about the costs of their own consultations and their own cases, though, and – if that’s you – I do think you’d likely be better of foregoing trying to conflict out attorneys who your ex husband *might* (or might not) hire.
If he already has a longstanding relationship with an attorney, you may not be able to meet with them anyway – they may already have a conflict in favor of him. In that case, I’d certainly not try to seek out that attorney (or others) in an attempt to keep them from representing him.
As for me, well… I work at a women only firm, so there’s no chance I’d meet with your husband anyway. In terms of a conflict of interest coming up because of our relationship with a man, it’s unlikely – we never represent them, ever.
In general, I think it’s probably better to focus on yourself than trying to ruin things for someone else, if only because of karma. You know? I prefer to keep my side of the street clean because I believe that intentions matter and having good ones allows me to get where I need to go.
For more information, or to request a copy of our book on hiring a divorce attorney, give our office a call at 757-425-5200 or visit our website at hoflaw.com.