Can A Divorce Attorney Guarantee A Win?

Sydney Mitchell:

Hi. My name is Sydney Mitchell.

Matthew Brickman:

Hi, I’m Matthew Brickman, Florida Supreme court mediator. Welcome to the Mediate This! Podcast where we discuss everything mediation and conflict resolution.

(00:14):
I received a great question from a listener, uh, that’s, that reads our attorneys able to guarantee a particular result in a divorce case, especially if the circumstances are heavily in one person’s favor. Um, so this is interesting, I guess, um, the choice of language. You know, are attorneys able to guarantee a particular result? Um, are they able to, some may try. Um, I always tell people, uh, especially being that, um, I was in front of multiple judges. My docket is 520, uh, entries. I had a very high post-divorce litigation with my ex. And never, never, not once did, uh, the court play out the way that I had played it out in my head, or even that my attorney had said, well, it should go this way, or, you know, we can expect that this is probably what’s going to happen. It never did it, it, you know, basically what I tell people is think of every potential scenario that the most logical, reasonable, rational human being would think of and expect completely the opposite.

(01:31):
Um, if an attorney guarantees a particular result to a client, I would, uh, fire the attorney and I would leave immediately. Uh, because there’s only two, maybe three guarantees that you can have going in front of a judge. Even if the circumstances appear to be heavily favored, uh, to one person, number one, it’s going to take time to get in front of the judge. Uh, court does not happen quickly, even in the state of Florida where, you know, we’ve got mediation, everything goes, uh, to mediation. We have a very short window. I believe, you know, nationwide, we have a short window that could be, you know, about maybe six to nine months before you get in front of a judge. A lot of people think that’s a long time, but I’ve heard of other states where it could be a year or two years before you get in front of a judge.

(02:25):
So if it’s a year or two years, and you can get there in six months, I think that’s relatively short. Uh, but it doesn’t happen quickly. It’s not like you’re gonna file and you’re gonna be in front of the judge within, you know, a month or so. It’s usually a number of months. And there’s a number of processes. For example, first you gotta come to mediation at least once. Um, if you can’t figure it out, then maybe an attorney will schedule temporary relief and maybe that’ll get you in front of a judge, maybe three months out after your mediation, uh, for a 15 minute hearing possibly. Um, or they may skip that entirely and set you for trial. But 10 days prior to your trial, most likely you’ll be ordered back to mediation, uh, to try to figure it out. And, uh, even when you go in front of a judge, most judges don’t rule from the bench, which means it’s not like you see on TV where, you know, you put on your case and the judge then calls everybody back in and says, okay, here’s what I found and this is what I believe, and you’re gonna do this and you’re gonna do that.

(03:23):
That’s not how it plays out. Um, usually it could be months after a hearing, before you, uh, the judge finally releases their final ruling. So, you know, one guarantee that an attorney can give period, end of story, is it’s gonna take time. The second guarantee is it’s going to cost a lot of money. You have to pay to play. It is not cheap. Everything costs, and you’ve gotta know that every single minute that you were either talking to, emailing, voice mailing, um, or engaging your attorney, you are spending money. So it is a very expensive process that is a guarantee. And then the third guarantee is that you as the party, as the individual lose all control of your life and your situation. Um, those are the three guarantees. It’s gonna take time. It’s gonna cost you a lot of money, and you’re gonna have no control.

(04:30):
You have no say to no way to control the outcome. So really what you’re doing is you’re surrendering your decision making authority to a judge, a single individual. Um, you know, there is no jury, there’s no jury of your peers that are gonna listen to this, and they’re gonna rule. It’s one individual, one judge, jury executioner. This one person will hold the fate of your kids, your home, your retirement, child support, alimony, whatever the case may be. You’ll have one judge, and this is all they do. They hear this every day, every day, every day. And so, you know, while you may think that you have particular nuances or you have, you know, special circumstances, you know what you don’t, you’re probably not the first one. Probably not the last one, uh, that the judge is ever gonna hear that has this story. And, you know, hopefully you don’t get a judge that’s just burnt out and just, you know, granting flippant rulings.

(05:39):
Um, hopefully you get one that’s, you know, paying attention, doing the analysis, you know, doing, you know, um, what you would hope they would do. But, you know, judges are humans too. You know, they make mistakes. Um, and that’s why we have an appellate court. If you think that trial is expensive, try the appellate court. That’s even more expensive. Um, and you’ll lose even more control, uh, because now you’re gonna have, uh, most likely not just your attorneys, but two appellate attorneys. So now you’ve got four different legal minds, uh, going at it. I did have a, a mediation where, um, all it was was a simple equitable distribution case. Just divide up the assets and the debts of the, uh, marriage. The parties came to mediation, couldn’t figure it out. So off to court, they go, uh, 10 days prior to the hearing, the judge ordered him back to mediation to try to figure it out.

(06:39):
So they came back to me, they still couldn’t figure it out. All it is is math. Um, we ran a program called Family Law Software. We put everything in there and run all the different scenarios. They still couldn’t figure out, uh, what they wanted to do. So off to court, they went, the judge ruled. They didn’t like the judge’s ruling. So what did they do? They engaged, uh, the appellate court. So it took a while. They finally got to the appellate court, and the appellate court found that the judge made gross negligent mathematical errors. Not sure how that happened because it’s math, but that is how it went down. So the appellate court remanded it back to the judge. The judge didn’t wanna deal with it. So what did the judge do? The judge punted to me and sent them back to mediation to figure it out.

(07:26):
So the parties came back to mediation, but they did not come back to mediation with just their attorneys, but came back with their appellate attorneys and round and round and round we went in mediation because now the appellate attorneys were arguing over the language from the appellate court, remanding it back down to, uh, the original court. So we had four attorneys arguing, and at this, uh, juncture, I’m like, guys, you know, you’ve spent all this money. This is your third round to mediation, like you should really figure this out. And the parties said, no, we’re gonna let the judge figure it out. And I said, hold on a second. You mean the same exact judge that made gross negligent mathematical errors that had it remanded? And then the judge sent you back to me because the judge didn’t wanna deal with it, and you want to go back in front of the judge to let the judge figure it out.

(08:23):
Okay? And so that’s exactly what they did. They went back to the judge. The judge was not happy with any of ’em, uh, but ended up, um, dividing things up. And, you know, it seemed as though it was just a regular nothing case of equitable distribution. But unfortunately, these two people were splitting up about $450,000, uh, in marital assets and liabilities. And they spent about $200,000 on attorneys to do so. How did they do? Um, so luckily their attorneys did not give them any guarantees, except that it was gonna take a while and it was going to cost them. And it did dearly. It cost them time and it cost them money. They paid their attorneys a hundred thousand dollars each instead of being able to keep that when they were dividing up their money. So, um, you know, there were many a times, even in my own case where, you know, it was very black and white.

(09:25):
My ex-wife owed child support. I had the ledger from the clerk of court that showed that she owed child support. It showed a delinquency. And when we walked into the courtroom and handed the papers to the judge, the judge even made, um, note that the paper was still warm. So I would say that that circumstance was heavily in my favor, being that the judge is like, wow, the paper’s warm. My attorney said, well, we just printed it from the clerk’s office. It clearly showed that there was a violation of a judicial order and there was a failure to pay support. So it clearly looked like it was heavily in my favor. Yet time, after time after time, the judge said, well, I’m not gonna find that she’s in contempt of court. Luckily, my attorney never guaranteed me a particular result. What my attorney said is, Matthew, I have no idea what the judge is gonna do.

(10:24):
The judge can do just about anything they want. It’s gonna cost you money to get there, and it’s gonna take time, and you’re not gonna have any decision making authority. It’s gonna be up to the judge. And this went on time, after time, after time until I finally decided that enough was enough. I was tired of wasting time. I was tired of wasting money, and I finally took control of my own life and settled. So hopefully that answers, uh, this listener’s question, uh, which again was, are the attorneys able to guarantee a particular result? Especially if the circumstances heavily in one person’s favor? I would hope not. But there are attorneys out there that might. So, uh, just be cautious when consulting your attorney.

Matthew Brickman:
Occasionally Sydney and I will be releasing Q&A bonus episodes where we’ll answer your questions and give you a personal shoutout.

Sydney Mitchell:
If you have a comment or question regarding anything that we discuss, email us at info@ichatmediation.com that’s info@ichatmediation.com and stay tuned to hear your shout out and have your question answered here on the show.

Matthew Brickman:

For more information about my services or to schedule your mediation with me, either in person or using my iChatMediation Virtual Platform built by Cisco Communications. Visit me online at www.iMediateInc.com. Call me at 561-262-9121, Toll-Free at 877-822-1479 or email me at MBrickman@iChatMediation.com.