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Contemplating Divorce?
The following release is provided for our media friends. For additional information, email publicity@impactpublishers.com.
Contemplating Divorce?
Protect Yourself, Your Children, and Your Assets
Protect Yourself, Your Children, and Your Assets
Ending your marriage can be devastating for you and your children, leaving you drained emotionally — and maybe financially as well. How do you survive the pain of divorce, protect your life savings, and spare your kids the psychological scarring that could keep them from forming successful relationships of their own?
There are many informed choices you can make to insure the best possible outcome in your case. First of all, says the Honorable James W. Stewart, Retired Supervising Judge of the Family Court of Santa Clara County, California, you must discard certain myths about divorce litigation that are no longer true under state law. Don’t lose more than you’re prepared to by believing that:
“By hiring a lawyer with skill and ability far surpassing what my spouse can afford, I can prevent my spouse from receiving what otherwise would have been due under California law.”
“My case ultimately will go to trial where a judge will rule on the disputes my spouse and I cannot resolve.”
“If my spouse is foolish enough not to hire an attorney, it will be to my benefit.”
Reality check: It’s highly unlikely that your case will go to trial before a judge. Under pressure from judges and a congested court system, the majority of divorce litigation cases settle. Those that don’t, warns Judge Stewart, can result in a financial catastrophe. “It is not just your spouse’s lawyer who has a hand in your pocket and will be paid from a portion of the estate the two of you have accumulated during the marriage,” he explains. “Your own attorney also is in the pay line, along with a host of experts if your estate is complex and sizable and the litigation is sufficiently intense.”
There are cost-effective alternative methods for resolving disputes, such as mediation, arbitration, and collaborative lawyering aimed at early settlement. You could bypass the public court system altogether and consider the “rent-a-judge” option of private mediation before a retired judge. Divorce doesn’t have to leave you feeling fed to the sharks. “What you need,” Stewart says, “is a competent attorney experienced in family law who will get you what you’re legally entitled to in the shortest time possible.”
In the new fifth edition of his Divorce Handbook for California: How to Dissolve Your Marriage Without Disaster (Impact Publishers, Inc.), Judge Stewart offers expert advice on how to approach divorce litigation realistically. His seasoned practical guidance includes savvy Do’s and Don’ts for hiring a good attorney while avoiding “divorce mills” and excessive nonrefundable fees. He offers expert advice on protecting yourself if you mediate without an attorney, dealing with an unreasonable spouse, evaluating a settlement proposal, acting in the children’s best interests in custody matters, and pursuing reasonable child and spousal support.
Packed with astute tips, the fifth edition of Divorce Handbook for California equips readers with essential facts about the costs, legal procedures, and judicial decision-making processes involved in dissolution litigation. “The purpose of this book,” Stewart sums up, “is to give you sufficient knowledge to get the 50 percent to which you are legally entitled without paying fees and costs so great they make winning an illusion.”
Honorable James W. Stewart has dedicated his career as a Superior Court judge to families and children involved in the divorce process. With almost twenty years on the bench, Stewart served four years as the supervising judge of the Family Court of the Santa Clara County Superior Court in California. He is a graduate of Stanford University and has taught family law to attorneys.
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Divorce Handbook for California (Fifth Edition) is available through online bookstores, in local bookstores throughout California, or directly from Impact Publishers, Inc. at 800-246-7228 or www.impactpublishers.com.
