The Divorce Papers: A Novel (25 page)

Trash my last email

Mags—

Please, please delete the Durkheim Divorce Announcement. And don’t tell anyone. It’s privileged information, what isn’t made up. I got a bit carried away. Oh, God, what a mess. Trash it and then empty the trash.

I am utterly degraded. Drunk, too. And I’ve done exactly what DG worried most about with email. If Fiona found out. I can’t even think about that.

Sophie

TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI

222 CHURCH STREET

NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555

(393) 876-5678

MEMORANDUM

Attorney Work Product

I like the bottom-line proposal and I like your brass. I hope you get it, but don’t count on it. Some people might consider that a top-of-the-line offer. Remember, she is Bruce Meiklejohn’s daughter, and every judge in this town, hell, in this state, knows it. There’s no way she’ll end up on the street. If she can’t sell the Martha’s Vineyard house, she can borrow against it.

Let me see your counteroffer and a draft of the cover letter by the end of the week. Make sure you tell Kahn the offer is subject to our discovery notice and the reports from O’Dell and Katz. I’ve made the point in my letter, but it’s worth repeating.

The Canon of Ethics says a lawyer should defend her client “zealously within the bounds of the law.” You were far more thorough than I would have been, but your approach may well be the right one; sometimes an experienced practitioner coasts, doing the same things over and over. It’s good for me to see how a skilled practitioner with no matrimonial experience goes about the job. Old dogs can learn new tricks. (Your presentation was exhaustive; that is what my mother would have called a suspenders-belt job. I suspect that’s your style and not simply your response to a new kind of case, no?)

Good work, Sophie.

TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI

222 CHURCH STREET

NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555

(393) 876-5678

MEMORANDUM

Attorney Work Product

Thanks for the kind words. I’ll have the draft and counteroffer to you on Friday. (You’re right, I am a suspenders-belt kinda girl; I’m always afraid I’ll leave something out. My mother says I
start
with the kitchen sink.)

I need some advice. A friend of mine needs a local divorce lawyer. He can’t afford us. (I’m not sure he can afford anyone; he’s a student.) Can you recommend someone? I don’t know the divorce bar in New Salem. Thanks.

TRAYNOR, HAND, WYZANSKI

222 CHURCH STREET

NEW SALEM, NARRAGANSETT 06555

(393) 876-5678

MEMORANDUM

Attorney Work Product

Funny you should ask. About two years ago I wrote a column on finding a divorce lawyer for the Consumer column in the
Courier
. It pretty much says everything I have to say about the subject. I’ve attached a copy. You can send it to your friend. Since he’s a student, I can’t imagine he has much money—or income. He might try to do it
pro se
, or through Legal Aid. He’ll have trouble finding someone for less than $80 an hour, and the hours can add up. (By the way, how many hours have you accrued in the Durkheim case? I’d like to have an idea; we probably should send Ms. Meiklejohn a billing statement.)

As for concrete recommendations, I offer the following three: Victoria Beaumont, Esq.; Megan Benett of Benett & Ratzan; and Max Rivington at Miller, Pierce and Maleri. They’re all good lawyers. They’re younger—and correspondingly cheaper—than older lawyers, but they’re all experienced in matrimonial law. Your friend can choose from among a solo practitioner, a member of a small firm, and an associate at a large one. You might also ask Felix for his recommendations; he knows everyone in the matrimonial bar.

This month, the Courier Consumer asked David Greaves, Esq., a partner in the New Salem law firm of Traynor, Hand, Wyzanski, to tell our readers how to find a divorce lawyer. We’ve had many requests for a column on this topic. And we know why. In 1996, in Tyler County, 1,519 couples got married; 687 got divorced. That’s a 45% divorce rate. Here’s what Mr. Greaves has to say.

The first question I’d put to someone looking for a divorce lawyer is this: How complicated will your divorce be?
Is it a contested divorce? Does your wife want support? Do you want support? Are you still living together? Have you been separated for a while, living independently and each supporting yourself? Do you both live in-state? If not, will your husband submit to jurisdiction in Narragansett? Do you have children? Is custody in dispute?

It’s possible in Narragansett for people to do their own divorces.
These are called
pro se
divorces. While I don’t recommend a
pro se
divorce for people with young children, substantial assets, or emotional baggage, it might do in a case where the marriage has been one of short duration between people of similar resources and the divorce is uncontested.
*
Mediation is also a possibility in an uncontested divorce.
**

If the case is more complicated but your resources are minimal, you might call Legal Services and see whether you are eligible for free representation.
***
If you’re ineligible for Legal Services, then you’ll need to hire a private lawyer.
It will be difficult to find one who’ll work for less than $75 an hour, and the hours add up. Even an uncontested divorce will probably cost each party at least $1,000. The fact is, there are no really cheap divorces and no really cheap good divorce lawyers. Be wary of the lawyer who says he can do it all for a set price of, say, $499. If the case turns out to be more complicated than anticipated, the fee will rise. And the case is almost always more complicated than anticipated. In my experience, it pays to hire a lawyer who bills by the hour.

Hiring the right lawyer takes time. Most people never think about hiring a lawyer until they need one urgently, and the result can be disastrous (losing custody, the family home, alimony) or expensive (hiring a second lawyer to undo the mess made by the first), as with any decision made precipitously, without research, in times of trouble.
People ask a friend or, if they don’t have a friend who knows a lawyer, they look in the Yellow Pages or take a telephone number off a bus advertisement, e.g.,
1-700-DIVORCES. They then call up, make an appointment, and sign on the dotted line, right there. They never think of interviewing the lawyer to see if she’s the right one; and they never think of interviewing more than one. The truth is, they don’t really want a divorce lawyer, not at that moment; they want a fairy godmother, someone to rescue them. Even professionals can become helpless and feckless in the face of divorce.

Asking friends, acquaintances, and colleagues for a recommendation is a good place to start, but don’t ask just anyone.
Pick your sources carefully: a friend who has survived a divorce with his dignity intact or a colleague whose judgment is sound.
****

You’ll want a consultation before you hire anyone.
Prepare a brief summary of your situation in advance; time is money to a lawyer, and you don’t want to waste her time or your money. After you’ve laid out the matter, ask the lawyer how she will proceed, how long she expects the divorce to take, and how much she thinks it will cost. Most divorces are based on separation agreements, but approximately 10% end up in the courts. If the case goes to court, the cost will mount dramatically. Do not sign right there. Thank the lawyer and say you’ll be in touch. You’ll want to talk to the other lawyers on your list and then review the consultations in order to figure out which one is likely to give you the best representation.

I don’t know that other lawyers would agree with me, but I think it’s important to like and respect your lawyer.
You don’t have to want to have dinner with her, but you should feel comfortable in her company and trust her judgment. In my experience in civil litigation generally and in divorce especially, people who hire a lawyer they don’t particularly like but think they need (a shark, a pit bull, a well-connected politico) are making a mistake. There’s a quid pro quo to the lawyer-client relationship, as there is in most relationships. If a client doesn’t like his lawyer, chances are the lawyer doesn’t like the client. Divorce is difficult enough without having your advocate despise you too. This being said, a client should never hire a friend as his divorce lawyer. (It goes without saying, of course, that a person should never hire a lawyer who’s a friend of both him and his wife, and no lawyer should take on that case. It’s instant death to the friendship and often to the lawyer’s reputation, especially in a small city.) People do and say terrible things in front of their lawyers during a divorce; after it’s all over, most people don’t want to have anything more to do with their lawyer. They don’t want a reminder of that time in their life—or of their own awful behavior during it.

Clients also need to keep in mind that their interests and their lawyers’ don’t perfectly coincide. Lawyers work for their clients, but also for themselves.
A lawyer has a reputation to maintain, other clients to service, an office to run, bills to pay, a practice to cultivate, and
a private life to live, factors all of which influence her actions on the client’s behalf. No client ever feels his lawyer gives his case the attention it deserves, and no lawyer can give it that kind of attention. There’s too much going on in the lawyer’s life, too little time, and, more often than not, too little money (even at $75 an hour). In divorce, there are very few satisfied customers. As in book publishing or home renovation, people enter the lawyer-client relationship with unreasonable expectations. (The publisher will run a nationwide ad campaign; the builder will give me my dream kitchen and still come in under budget; the lawyer will get me everything I want and deserve.) The first task of a good divorce lawyer is to educate the client, to get him to understand that negotiation is a two-way street and that the best agreement is one that allows each side to claim victory on some grounds. The most satisfactory divorces I’ve handled have ended up with both the husband and wife feeling slightly but tolerably aggrieved. There are no winners in divorce, but there don’t have to be any losers.

*You can pick up a copy of the Narragansett
Do It Yourself Divorce Guide
, published by the Narragansett Judicial Branch, from the Tyler County Clerk or the New Salem Law Society Library. This booklet outlines all the steps in a
pro se
divorce and includes copies of all the forms; it is intended only for “uncomplicated cases,” where the spouses “agree on the basic issues.” There are also books, published by commercial publishers, that outline the steps in a
pro se
divorce and provide sample agreements as well as the official forms. An example is
The Uncontested Divorce in Narragansett: A How-To Manual,
published by SelfHelp Press.

**A final note about mediation. A trained mediator who is a member of the New Salem Mediation Bureau can handle a divorce
if
—and here comes a series of big
ifs
—the parties both think mediation is the way to go; they have comparable resources; they are prepared to be not merely reasonable but generous; they love their children and have their best interests at heart; and they are not at daggers with each other. After coming to an agreement, each of them needs to hire a lawyer to look over the agreement and make sure it’s fair. (Narragansett law requires that.)

***The income cutoff is $17,000 a year. As of December 20, Legal Services was doing divorces, but with all the cutbacks that they’ve been facing, they may decide that their resources are better spent on more urgent cases. Call before turning up on their doorstep (393-555-0101).

****You can also consult the Law Society (393-555-6789), which will provide you with the names of divorce specialists along with their professional biographies. Once you’ve collected a number of names, call three of them and make appointments, asking first what it will cost, if anything, to have a consultation about representation
. ■