Family offers so much: love, comfort, emotional support, and sometimes financial support, among other things. At the same time, family can be filled with conflict and stress. Whether it is divorce and arguing over child custody or asset division, the death of the family patriarch or matriarch and disputes over the estate, or an argument over a loan between siblings or cousins, many family conflicts rise to the level of becoming a legal matter. This is unfortunate and often causes rifts between relatives. A skilled and compassionate Chicago family lawyer at Johnson O’Keefe may be able to assist your family with resolving conflicts while protecting your loved ones and your relationships. Call (312) 319-4444 to schedule a consultation and learn more about resolving your family conflicts with a more peaceful, less confrontational approach.
What Is the Role of a Family Lawyer?
Many people view lawyers as someone who understands the law and can offer legal advice while representing the individual in court. This is a very basic description of what a lawyer can do, particularly when it is a family lawyer. Family lawyers use their in-depth knowledge of family law statutes and precedents to provide accurate and relevant advice to their client. They also do so much more.
A family lawyer is a skilled negotiator and advocate who works tirelessly to protect their client and their client’s interests. Family lawyers explain options, potential outcomes, and the reasoning behind various legal strategies. They offer emotional support and objectivity to help their clients make rational decisions in emotionally charged situations. Family law attorneys mediate agreements by facilitating open and productive communication between their client and the opposing party with a goal of reaching a compromise that provides a beneficial outcome to all parties involved. They do these things while offering multiple legal methods of resolving disputes.
Mediation and the Family Lawyer
Mediation is a legal method to resolve family conflicts that many people are familiar with. Mediation involves a neutral third party who helps facilitate negotiations and communication between two or more individuals who are in conflict with each other. A family lawyer can take on the role of impartial mediator and help to ensure a mutually beneficial resolution that also complies with the law. If the parties opt to hire another mediator, a family lawyer can still act as an advisor and review any agreements the parties come to, ensuring legal compliance and fair resolutions.
Mediation can be done voluntarily in many cases, including disputes in divorces or when modifying existing family court orders. However, in some instances, mediation may be court-ordered. For example, per 750 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 5/602.10(c), any cases involving child custody, visitation, parenting time, or the relocation of a child must be ordered to attend mediation if they have not agreed on a parenting plan. In these instances, the parties must still choose and agree on a mediator themselves and can seek legal guidance and support from a family lawyer if they choose.
Collaboration and the Family Lawyer
Collaboration is a more recent legal method that has developed in approximately the last thirty years. Those who have heard of collaboration have often heard of it in the context of divorce, which is called collaborative divorce. In collaboration, both parties and their respective lawyers work together to come to an agreement that benefits everybody involved in the conflict. Collaboration can be extremely helpful when there are children involved because it typically allows the parents to work together and maintain an amicable co-parenting relationship, unlike litigation, which often sets parents up for a confrontational relationship. Using collaboration in divorce still follows the same steps for divorce in Illinois, but can help couples avoid court. A family lawyer with Johnson O’Keefe may be able to assist you with a collaborative divorce or other family conflict.
This non-confrontational, out-of-court method for dispute resolution allows a family lawyer to encourage their client to work together with both the other party and legal counsel to resolve the conflict privately. The family lawyers can provide their respective clients with information regarding their legal options and help the spouses find common ground to resolve contentious issues with negotiation and open communication. Collaboration is very similar to mediation, except that each party’s family lawyer is present at collaboration sessions, and there is no neutral third party. Agreements reached in collaboration must be approved by the court to be enforceable, per 750 Ill. Comp. Stat. § 90/35.
Litigation and the Family Lawyer
While many people believe that hiring a lawyer means going to court, litigation is often a last-resort measure when other attempts to resolve the issues have not worked. Unfortunately, some disputes are not resolved in mediation or collaboration. When this happens, the conflict goes to litigation instead. Litigation can be a drawn-out process, with discovery, lengthy waits to be put on a judge’s docket and receive a court date, and possibly multiple hearings to provide all the evidence, make all the arguments, and finally receive a decision from the judge.
If a family conflict goes to litigation, a family lawyer can advocate for their client’s rights and interests in court. The lawyer can also use their legal knowledge and experience to present a strong case. They can guide their client through financial disclosures and discovery processes so that their client understands what they must do and what they can refuse to do. If mediation or collaboration methods were tried first, the family attorney may also be able to bring up points the parties have agreed on to shorten the time spent in court and help the parties remain calmer and less confrontational so that their relationship does not suffer significant damage as a result of going to court.
How an Experienced Chicago Family Lawyer Can Assist Your Family
Whether it is a divorce, custody issue, or other family dispute, no one enjoys family conflict. While it may seem as though hiring an attorney is escalating the issue and potentially damaging a relationship in a way you may never recover from, it can actually be a way to diffuse the tension and find a mutually beneficial solution that allows your relationship to remain intact or to become a different but better relationship. Through mediation or collaboration, a skilled and compassionate family lawyer with Johnson O’Keefe may be able to help you navigate your conflict with less emotion and more logic so you can resolve the conflict without destroying the relationship. Call (312) 319-4444 if you would like to schedule a consultation and learn more about how our Chicago-based family lawyers may be able to assist you.