I have been involved in a number of matters in recent months which I find quite disturbing and upsetting. Despite best efforts by a lot of family law specialists, there are still a number of so-called family law experts who continue to file in Court in just about every matter they take control of.
In the two matters in which I have had some involvement, there was simply no need in either matter for either solicitor to file Applications in Court. Both the Applications were misguided and filed within three weeks of negotiations commencing.
There was no non-disclosure or no urgency issue to protect assets. If any of you have any clients who ever go to a family law solicitor who recommends immediate Court action and they do not explain why that action is absolutely necessary, then you need to pull your client away from that lawyer as soon as possible.
Over the last five years, there has been a massive growth in mediation, collaborative lawyering and other alternative dispute resolution techniques that are now the preferred option to resolve all matrimonial matters. There is no reason why those options, together with other innovative options, cannot solve 95% of family law disputes out of Court.
However, there are still a few “dinosaur” family lawyers out there who give the rest of the accredited specialists and other family lawyers a bad name.
If you are a financial advisor, accountant or trusted advisor of a party and you sniff that your client is involved with a litigious family lawyer then you will save them a lot of money, anxiety and stress by influencing them to change lawyers to a family lawyer who does not talk about litigation being the only way to resolve a matter.
