Your First Appointment – What You Should Expect
We at First Law look forward to working with you to resolve your family law issues.
- Russell Tretiak Q.C.
- Lori Gerbig
- Candice Hall
- Brandon Hastings
- Rasjovan Dale (Articled Student)
This is the first in a series of posts meant to give some background as to how you, as a client, can get the most out of your time with your lawyer.
We at First Law have found that many clients don’t really have a good idea of what to expect from their lawyer. So we thought that we’d put some thoughts together to give you, the client, an outline of what to expect.
We’re starting with what happens at your first appointment.
Most lawyers go into law, especially family law, out of a desire to help people. We do sincerely want to help. But we can’t anticipate every question for every unique client as there are just too many variables. So if you want specific information you should write down your questions! We’re happy to answer your questions about the legal process in general and about family law in particular.
The first appointment is an opportunity for both the lawyer and the client to get a sense of the other person and what they’re like. Lawyers are people too with personalities of their own. Not all lawyers work well with all clients. You have to trust your lawyer and share personal details of your life and family situation with your lawyer. So you have to be comfortable with your lawyer as a person. You and your lawyer have to work together as a team throughout the process of resolving your family law issues. Think about that during your first appointment. If you have questions about our background or experience or our philosophy, then ask us.
The first appointment is an opportunity for not only the lawyer to gather information about your situation but for you to get some information from the lawyer about what your rights are and what your obligations are in terms of your spouse and your children.
Family law is complex. There are many variables that come into play in assessing what your rights and obligations are. It isn’t a clear cut and simple area of law at all.
So, for the lawyer to be able to give you some solid information to take away from your appointment, you have to give the lawyer some specific information about you, your spouse, and your children.
The lawyer will ask you for a brief history including whether or not you’re married, how long you’ve been together, the ages of any children you have, what your incomes are and what your assets and debts are. That is the type of information we need to assess your claim and advise you.
We think that you should expect to leave your appointment knowing more about the process than when you came in.
But every situation is different. Every client is different. Since you’re unique, you have to give us some information about your situation before we can tailor the information we give you to fit your situation.
Your lawyer will explain parental responsibilities and parenting time under the Family Law Act and give you some ideas to consider about specific arrangements in your particular circumstances after you give us some background. The arrangements that are common with respect to infants or toddlers are vastly different from the arrangements that work with respect to teenagers. There is no one size fits all with respect to children.
Child support and spousal support are based on income as well as other less immediately obvious factors. Your lawyer will ask you questions to elicit the information we need to tailor our advice to your situation. If you know what you and your spouse’s gross income was for the last tax year, your lawyer will be able to give you some estimates of amounts to expect in terms of child support or spousal support. Even if you don’t know what the income amounts were, your lawyer will still explain how support is calculated.
Your lawyer will ask you questions about assets and debts. You should make a list of assets and debts before your appointment. Your lawyer will also ask about inheritances and assets owned before the relationship in order to work those factors into the analysis. But the more financial information you bring to your appointment, the more you’ll get out of your appointment in terms of examples of how assets and debts might actually be divided in your specific circumstances.
Once your lawyer has asked you the background questions to gather the information your lawyer thinks is relevant, your lawyer will tell you in as much specificity as we can given the information you’ve brought to your appointment.
Your lawyer will also tell you about the legal process in general and how it might apply to your situation. We’ll give you some options to think about in terms of how to proceed.
At that point, you’ll probably be feeling a bit overwhelmed. There is a lot of information to take in. That is why it is best if you come in with a list of questions. At the end of our appointment, we can go through your list of questions to see if there is anything that we haven’t talked about during the appointment. Sometimes we’ve covered everything in our discussion already. But not always so if there is something you really want to know, it is best to write it down in advance to make sure you get the answer.
In future blog posts we’ll give you some more concrete suggestions of specific documents to gather together and some more background on how the process works and ways to try to avoid court. So check back for more information.
We at First Law look forward to meeting you soon!
- Russell Tretiak Q.C.
- Lori Gerbig
- Candice Hall
- Brandon Hastings
- Rasjovan Dale (Articled Student)