The toughest part about this practice is that most prospective clients would not need a New Jersey child support lawyers if they didn’t suffer a significant decline in their earnings. But this creates a catch-22. How do you find the money to pay a lawyer when you are having problems paying child support? I try to get people to look at hiring an attorney as an investment. If we can reduce your child support obligation, the money you save may quickly make up for the legal fees you had to pay. Once you have recouped your investment, you could view the balance as profit. This is especially helpful if you need to convince a friend or family member to lend you the money for the legal fees.
Client goes from $50 to $151 per week in child support payments
Huge win today and proof that I don’t just represent one side. My client has been getting screwed for years. The other side paid $50 for over 10 years with not one COLA adjustment. Worse yet, my client was not reimbursed for any medical expenses. I was able to get the client everything we were looking for and the child support went from $50 per week to $151. The best part is that it didn’t even cost my client that much money!
Waiting to file a motion could cost you
One of my new clients just came to me to file a motion to increase child support as the number has not been adjusted in over a decade. As a result, she has been missing out on thousands of dollars per year as the number is off by anywhere from 50% to 75%. In addition, she never sought any contribution for medical expenses which is even more money that she has left on the table. Lucky, we may be able to get some of that back. But since there is no retroactive child support increase, she will still lose a ton of money. Moral of the story: act now!
A motion for child support modification is a gamble, but sometimes worth the risk
I met a client a few weeks ago that makes a nice income even though it is a 1/3 of what it use to be. It was a fairly routine motion so I charged him a rather minimal retainer as I didn’t see the case getting out of hand. If we won, he could save $40,000 over the next four years. Worst case scenario, he would be out $5,000 in legal fees and that is really worst case.
He wanted me to give him an exact prediction. Unfortunately, our judicial system does not allow that. Just because you should win, doesn’t mean you will. Luckily, the system works most of the time. You are rolling the dice with every motion you file for child support. I just had a case where we were asking for an increase and the court decreased it even though the other party wasn’t requesting one! Thankfully, I was able to withdraw that request and the child support remained the same.
So, when you speak to a New Jersey child support lawyer, understand that the best he or she may be able to tell you is how much of a risk you are taking. If you have a really good chance of saving up to $40,000 and you will most likely spend less than $5000 (probably even less than $2500) to roll the dice, that may be a great bet!
Can’t afford a lawyer? Think again.
I spoke to a woman yesterday that read my blog and had a question. Unlike most of the people that call me, she was not prepared to hire a lawyer because she couldn’t afford it. This thinking is interesting for several reasons. First, she doesn’t work for free but for some reason, she thinks I do! I cannot give free legal advice in the same way you don’t call a plumber to have him teach you how to fix your problem on your own for free.
More importantly though is that this was a total assumption on her part without any real consideration as to the true cost of going with an attorney. When I asked her how much other lawyers charged her, she said she didn’t speak to anyone who actually quoted her a fee. However, her divorce cost tens of thousands of dollars so she assumes a simple motion will be the same price. Not quite.
Even after I explained to her that it would cost much less to handle this simple motion, she still said she didn’t have the money even though she had plenty of room on her credit cards. I then asked her to consider the true cost of going without a lawyer.
Her ex-husband filed a motion to emancipate her daughter and there is no way (in my opinion) that she should have lost this motion. However, she went without a lawyer and her ex had one. Guess who won? Now she wants to file another motion and she thins for some reason, the result will be different as she still refuses to retain a lawyer.
Her daughter will start college in January. So you have child support, college expenses and medical expenses for at least four years that will not be received. This could add up to over $100,000 that she would have received. So if you can’t afford a few thousand for a lawyer, how will you afford over 50 times that?
Clients saves a ton of money
Just finished a case where my client filed a child support motion pro se but wanted me to argue it in court. After we resolved most of the issues in his favor, I realized that there were some other issues that he did not address in his motion. In New Jersey, you can only argue what you put in the motion. Thus, he would have had to hire me to come back to court. I worked out this other issue for him that will save him tens of thousands of dollars over time.
I also make sure that his child support numbers were correct as the court’s numbers were wrong. Sometimes clients don’t appreciate your efforts because they don’t even grasp what you’ve done, but he sure did. At the end of the day, he said, wow, you are really good. That made it all worth it for me. And no, it has nothing to do with my ego. I went the extra mile for him by working out issues he wasn’t even asking for and he realized that and was thankful for it. For me, that is what it is all about.
When consent orders attack
I’ve seen two different child support cases in my office this week where the client worked out a consent order without really knowing what they were getting into. After a while, they realized that something was left out or that something about it was wrong. If you go without an attorney or with one that doesn’t know what they are doing, then you could run into serious problems. As always, it is easier (and cheaper) to do it right the first time.
At the very least, meet with an attorney before you enter into any agreement or file any motion. If your case or issue is really that simple, than it should be really inexpensive to hire an attorney to make sure it is done right the first time.
Hiring an attorney for a divorce now could save you money later
I often feel like a broken record for constantly repeating myself, but I feel that it is necessary. I have so many people that come into my office for a divorce consultation in an effort to simply pump me for information so that they can avoid hiring me or any other attorney. I guess that is what I get for giving free consultations? More importantly however is the the fact that these people don’t listen to me when I tell them that hiring a good attorney is like making a good investment, it will save you money and pay off in the long run. Nevertheless, they don’t want to hear it.
As I often do, I am more concerned with results than money. I see way too many people that had no attorney or a less than stellar attorney for the divorce and now months or years later, sometimes many years later, issues have developed that may take thousands of dollars to resolve. Worse yet, some cases never seem to resolve. However, if they would have retained a good attorney from the start, all of that money, time and aggravation would be avoided.
I have so many people that tell me, “I wish I would have retained you from the start”. This is because a good attorney should make sure that everything is set up so that the divorce ends just about everything possible so that there are no issues lingering after the divorce. Without an attorney, no one else in the court is going to help you. With a bad attorney, no thought will be put into making sure you don’t have to come back to that attorney’s office.
The bottom line, 1, get a good attorney, 2, question your attorney to make sure that there are no avoidable issues that could go wrong after the case is over. Otherwise, issues such as child support, alimony or the sale of the house could take years to resolve.
If you need an attorney for any divorce of child support case in New Jersey, call me anytime.
Collecting unemployment is rarely a changed circumstance
It seems like common sense. You lose your job and are now collecting unemployment. Your child support obligation that was based upon your old higher salary now seems awfully expensive. So, you should get a reduction now right? Wrong!
Most people can’t even believe that this is the law but even in this economy, most judges in New Jersey will likely hold that short term unemployment is not a changed circumstance. So when is it not short term? There is no exact time frame.
In normal times, it is fairly easy for someone to get a job that pays close to what they were making after a few months of searching. However, in this economy, is it really possible to find a new job so quick or at all? If you really want to make a good run at such a motion, I suggest hiring an attorney right away even though the motion will not be filed for several months. I know it is tough to hire an attorney when you are out of work but I always tell my clients to look at it like an investment. In other words, paying a little now could save thousands down the road.
If you have lost your job, call me today to discuss how we can work today to set up a credible motion several months down the road.
Toms River Child Support Attorney
If you want to see an attorney for any child support issue, I will be in my Toms River office for most of this week. The address of my Toms River office is 26 Main Street. Because of high school and college graduations, emancipation motions are very common this time of year. I have already filed numerous motions within the past few weeks, and I am sure I will file many more.
My initial consultations are always free. If you can’t make it down to my Toms River office, you can call me to discuss any child support issue. Not only do I focus on winning your child support case, but I always work as efficiently as possible to save you money. After all, what good is a result if it costs you an arm and a leg? I am also aggressive in that I always fight for you and I back down to no one. Thus, if you need a child support to fight for you in the Toms River, Ocean County Courts, call me today.
