I can’t imagine a more important responsibility as a lawyer than when someone entrusts the future of his or her child to me when I am retained in a custody, visitation or divorce action.  It is not a responsibility that I take lightly.  Representing clients in any contested child custody or family law litigation is not like practicing any other type of law.  We are not talking about widgets here.  We are talking about someone’s beloved child  -- someone’s life.  As an attorney who is also a parent, I treat those who retain me, fathers and mothers, grandparents and foster parents, with the kind of understanding, honesty and commitment that I would expect if I were in their place.  I will represent your children as though they were my own. 

Since contested family law cases, especially child custody and divorce, are often quite complex, they can be easily mishandled if you do not carefully choose the right attorney.   All too often the person best suited to care for a child loses a child custody case because their lawyer did not properly handle the case for any one of a variety of reasons.  The court may never have been presented with a case that was clearly articulated, supported by the evidence and persuasively argued so that it could accurately assess what was in the child’s best interest.  

Contested custody cases are “fact driven”  -- that is, the court will determine what is in the child’s best interests based on the facts that I will present in order to “paint a picture” of what is going on in your particular family.  In child custody matters, there is little “black letter law” – principles of law which are known and free from doubt or dispute that govern the facts of your case that you can rely on to clearly predict the outcome of your case.   Although there is a state statute, Code of Virginia, 20-124.3, that governs child custody cases and requires that the court determine what is in “the best interests of the child” by considering various factors enumerated therein, the courts rarely see child custody cases as “black or white” but filled with shades of gray.  Therefore, it is absolutely critical to hire an experienced custody attorney who is aggressive, analytical, committed to your case and knows how to unravel the personal facts and history of your family in order to craft a strategy that will result in a cohesive and persuasive case when presented to the court

In all contested family law cases – child custody, divorce, visitation, child support and grandparents’ rights litigation – “the devil is in the details”.  That is why contested family law litigation most often is time consuming and expensive when handled properly by an experienced family law attorney.  Unfortunately, there are few short cuts.  All too often, I hear the horror stories from clients about their former inexperienced – or irresponsible – lawyers who failed to take the time necessary to properly analyze the facts of a case or conduct sufficient trial preparation.  There is nothing more frustrating than to know that a parent may have lost custody of their children because of inadequate lawyering.  Unfortunately, there is not much you can do in that situation unless your case was heard and lost in a Virginia Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court and you file a notice of appeal within ten (10) days of the entry of the Juvenile Court order so that you are entitled to a trial de novo – a new trial – in Circuit Court.  Since many parents do not have the resources to fund a second trial (and unfortunately, some cannot fund even the first one), it is imperative that you retain an attorney that you are confident can really do the job representing you the first time around.  This is especially important because should you lose your initial custody case, and subsequently file another custody case in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court for any reason, you will not be able to raise any of the issues that were litigated in the first case or facts that existed at the time of the first custody hearing even if they were never raised or heard by the court.  In other words, the court will never hear evidence that existed prior to the entry of the last court order.  Although this may seem harsh at first glance, without this rule, the court would be filled with people re-litigating ancient history over and over again.  Should you file a custody petition after a custody order has been previously entered regarding a particular child, you will only be allowed to present evidence from the date of the entry of the last court order to the date of the subsequent hearing. 

Because families are like fingerprints – no two are exactly the same – your family law problem is unique.  Therefore, each case that I handle is custom designed for the person who retains me.  Although some generalities can be made from family to family, I will not use a  “cookie-cutter” approach to your case.  For example, should I file interrogatories (written questions that must be answered under oath by the opposing party for the purpose of discovering relevant information prior to trial) in your case, I do not use a set of boilerplate questions that many attorneys use in custody cases.   I will prepare interrogatories that are tailored to the facts of your case in order to obtain relevant information that will be genuinely useful and necessary to best prepare your case for trial.     

It is important to note that although you may know of a case that is similar to yours, you should not assume that you will have the same result after a hearing -- that is a dangerous and erroneous assumption.  What you may think is an unimportant or minor issue in your case, that is not an issue in what you believe is an otherwise substantially similar case, can radically change the outcome of your case.  The court in considering the various statutory factors in determining   what is in your child’s best interest is often subjective by the very nature of the vague “best interests” standard, and you could get a different result with the same facts if presented to a different judge.  Again, the best way to maximize the chances of getting the result you believe is in your child’s best interest, is to retain an experienced custody or family law attorney who has experience litigating cases similar to yours before the judge assigned to your case. 

If I determine after the initial consultation that I believe in the merits of your case and agree to accept it, I will delve into what I call “the psychology of the case”. I will partner with you in order to determine how best to present the facts to the court in a manner that the court can easily understand and that hopefully, will convince them that our position is in your child’s best interest. Although I cannot guarantee a specific outcome to your case, I assure you that your case will be thoroughly prepared and you will be zealously represented when you have your day in court.

I have a proven and very successful track record in representing men and women, mothers and fathers, grandparents and foster parents in numerous contested family law cases that I have handled over the past 20 years in New York City and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.  As an experienced family law trial attorney, I will conduct a through analysis of the facts of your case, conduct pre-trial discovery, schedule adequate trial preparation, including preparation of you and your witnesses for direct and cross-examination, utilize expert witnesses when appropriate, etc.  Such efforts are necessary in any contested litigation and will increase the likelihood of obtaining the result you desire.  Please realize that often, after an opposing party realizes that you are aggressively pursuing your position in a case, the opposing party is more likely to want to resolve a matter that may have previously been considered impossible to settle through a mediated or consent order.  Be assured that throughout even the most contested litigation, I will always use my best efforts to negotiate a resolution of a case through a mediated or consent order between the parties that is satisfactory and acceptable to my client.     

I look forward to an opportunity to meet with you so that we can discuss the possibility of partnering together in an effort to resolve the challenges you face regarding your family law problem.

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