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Divorce Attorney in Orange County, CA & Family Law Attorney
Pinkham & Associates is a dedicated Family Law firm. My name is Douglas S. Pinkham and l am the managing partner. We have been in practice for nearly 16 years.
Family law includes divorce, divorce mediation, child support, child custody & visitations, spousal support issues, domestic violence and several other more subtle areas. We have been litigating for all of our years in practice and we feel very comfortable and confident in the court room. However, although there are occasions when litigation is necessary, anytime time we are able to avoid court or arguing before a judge, we save our clients’ time and money and we end up with agreed-upon court orders that the parties are much more comfortable with, and much more likely to properly follow.
Douglas S. Pinkham, Orange County Divorce Attorney – Yelp
Contact us and we will personally help to guide you through the process.
Orange County Divorce Lawyer
Obviously, the battle of litigation is more costly and time consuming than agreeing outside of court and avoiding hearings before a judge, but often we do not have a choice. Sometimes, litigation is the only solution to finishing your divorce.
For example, if the other side takes an unreasonable legal position, or demands more than they have coming to them, litigation is necessary. However, it is important to pay special attention to whether the other party, or the other attorney or worse yet, your own divorce attorney, may be “over-litigating” your divorce in general or on any particular issue. Is the other side litigating reasonably, or are they just out for the fight? Are they making unreasonable demands? Does your spouse have unrealistic expectations? These are very important questions in order to better understand and determine potential depth of litigation that may face you and your team in your divorce. The majority of family law and divorce attorneys understand their client’s time and budget considerations, but there are divorce litigation attorneys who thrive on fighting, just for the sake of fighting. They thrive on over-litigating for the sole purpose of earning additional attorney fees with a greater concern on themselves than their client. Furthermore, although sometimes being tough and rigid are necessary, often times, these over-litigation or “Scorched Earth” tactics simply drive up the cost of the divorce without great benefit. There are however, tactics used in some higher value divorce cases, to intentionally over-litigate for the purpose of making it financially difficult and sometimes impossible for the other party and their counsel to “keep up” thereby forcing settlement that benefits the over-litigating party. This is unethical, but is not uncommon. If this is happening to you, you should know there are methods to combat these techniques.
A respectable and responsible family law and divorce lawyer will always aggressively fight for the legal rights of their client while always being cognizant of their client’s needs and priorities. If there are more direct methods for achieving a client’s goal, a responsible divorce attorney will discuss those methods with their client, including a discussion of all the benefits and risks of their chosen tact and do a serious, real-world cost-benefit analysis of those chosen tactics. When your opponent is litigating unreasonably, forcing them into court to present their case to a judge may be the only way to win on a particular issue. These types of discussions should take place throughout your entire case to make sure both the layer and his client are on the same page and moving forward in a cohesive manner.
The family law litigant should know there are only two ways to get through the divorce process: 1. Either, the parties agree on an issue and settle on that issue outside of court or, 2. They take that issue into court and present their evidence before the court, asking the judge to make the decision for you. If you and your spouse are unable to resolve one (or more) issues by means of settlement negotiations, assistance by a mediator, arbitrator or any other third party, the only other choice is to go into court.
Orange County Family Law Attorney
Child Support: One of the more difficult issues in Family Law is child support. The two most important factors in determining child support are 1) the income of the parties, and 2) how much time the children spend with each parent. There are approximately 30 other factors that may come into consideration, but they are certainly not as important, and do not have as much effect on the amount to be paid. If you are in Orange County and you are curious about how much money you should pay or receive for child support, call us.
Child Custody: The issues of custody and visitations are very sensitive. As a matter of fact, the term “custody” has two different meanings: physical custody, and legal custody. They really have nothing to do with each other and understanding the difference between each is a must for anyone going through it.
Paternity: Paternity is when you have a child and you are not married. Such case always involves child custody and support. If you have a child with someone, and you are interested in getting child support, child visitation, or you need help defending a child support case call us for a complete case evaluation without obligation.
Spousal Support: Spousal support is a difficult issue. If you are married in California for more than 10 years, the state of California deems that to be a long term marriage and they will maintain jurisdiction over the issue of spousal support indefinitely. It does not mean “forever,” but it probably means longer than half of the length of your marriage. We can help you understand how the duration of your marriage and other factors will affect your spousal support.
Unbundled services: Unbundled services are an emerging area of law; if you simply need to hire an attorney to help you file a document, or to help you prepare a motion, we are happy to do that as well.
Annulment: Learn more about the difference between annulment and divorce, and find whether you can get annulment. We can also help with you with issues of Domestic Violence, as well as Annulment, Visitations, or any family law and divorce related legal case.
Dedicated to Family Law
At Pinkham & Associates, we are a dedicated Family Law Firm in Orange County California practicing Divorce and all related Family Law issues. If you, or anyone you know needs advice about their divorce or family or legal matter, call us, we can help. When a marriage fails there are many issues that may need to be addressed, issues of child custody and visitations schedules, financial support of your children, issues of spousal support, and the division of all of your community property and belongings, including bank accounts, cars, and retirement accounts. Also, one party or the other may be self-employed or own their own business, and that business is likely to be a community property asset and will need to be valued and divided between the parties one way or another. There are also many other family law issues that we help our clients with, such as paternity cases, annulments, domestic violence, grandparent rights, and more. If you are involved in a Family Law matter, please look around our website for more information and videos on a number of different topics. We know you will have questions, if you are comfortable with talking to a Family Law Attorney, call us, we truly are happy to talk to you.
How does it all work?
Explore the wealth of information we’ve provided here to help familiarize yourself with some of the processes regarding divorce, custody and support, paternity, or other legal services that are available to you. We’ve also made a broad range of additional articles and testimonials available to you.
Where do I begin?
We can help you through your toughest of times, whether you’re ready to o move on from your marriage, or if you have child custody and child support issues, or whether you’re struggling with spousal support or domestic violence. It all starts with a simple call and we’ll be happy to provide you with a consultation at no cost.
