This is Todd Burnham, the Founding Partner of Burnham Law, and an experienced family law lawyer with a superb record. In this post, I will tell you the biggest mistake you can make in your divorce case.
How to Lose a Divorce Case
What you need to remember is that there is no real winner or loser, especially if you have children. The goal is to get you through to get you to the other side in a dignified and respectable way, that gets you on your path to recovery, to starting a new life. Divorce proceedings are temporary, always stay focused on getting through the divorce and moving on.
Often, people think that they know what they need, and they’ll come into a case with preconceived misconceptions that “I talked to Johnny over there who said that X is the best lawyer out there.” And X might be the best lawyer for that specific case. Still, it doesn’t mean that that lawyer is the best one for a complicated financial case when someone’s hiding assets or when there’s emotional abuse happening. What if that lawyer doesn’t know how to deal with narcissists or doesn’t have the patience to let complicated details come to the surface.
You, as the client, have to do your homework. That’s the thing that you want to remember the most; to have a frame of reference and to trust your instincts. That is the thing that’s going to carry you because your instincts are everything. Just because I might sound good on video or just because we have awards doesn’t mean we’re a good fit for you. It doesn’t mean that we’re the best fit for you and your objectives.
We Don’t Take Every Case
At Burnham Law we don’t take every case because some people will come in and say things like, “I’m going to make her life hell.” We don’t take those cases. That’s not what we’re about, but there are lawyers and firms that will take those cases, and that might be a better fit if you’re looking for retribution. But the only person that’s winning there is that lawyer. You hired them to make you feel better for five minutes, but they’ll be feeling better for a long time with your money. There are short plays and there are long plays.
At Burnham Law our goal is to get our clients the best outcome. Full Stop. If that means the other party also receives a good result, that’s not our concern. We’re simply concerned with being the absolute best in the business for our clients.
The Big Mistake
The biggest mistake people make is choosing the wrong lawyer. Sometimes you’re going to get lucky. Sometimes you’re not going to get lucky. You have to follow your instincts. If you follow your instincts and have a frame of reference and you know that, “Well, I’ve interviewed three other lawyers, I felt best about this one,” you go with that one.
One might have a whole bunch of awards, but you get a better vibe from a different lawyer with fewer awards. That’s why you have to do your interviews with multiple lawyers because you’ve got to know why you’re feeling a certain way. If it’s just one person, you’re like, “Oh, my God. Todd Burnham, you’re the best,” and you haven’t interviewed anybody else, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
You should interview multiple attorneys. You don’t even have to go into the offices. You can talk to the person on the phone. And if they’re listening, if they sound like they have a strategy for you, then you start looking at the website, then you start looking at reviews, then you start looking at what their brand is and their strategy.
In the end, you always follow your gut. That’s the answer.