When You Separate

Written Agreements

Sometimes when a husband and wife decide to separate they are able to agree on how to handle most, or even all, of the issues that arise from their separation. Even when you have an agreement, you need the help of an attorney who can help make sure the agreement is in your best interest and help you turn your agreement into an enforceable court order. We can review that agreement with you to help you determine whether the agreement is fair to you, help you make revisions to the agreement if necessary to increase the chances that a Family Court Judge will approve the agreement, do the necessary legal work to present the agreement to a Family Court Judge for their review and, if the agreement is approved, put the agreement into a written court order for the judge to sign.

Mediation

Sometimes a husband and wife want to reach an agreement but realize they need the assistance of an outside person who can help them work through the issues. We can help couples who sincerely want to reach an agreement by acting as an independent mediator. Unlike our other work as lawyers, when we act as a mediator, we do not represent the interests of either spouse. When we are your mediator, we act as an independent professional whose job is to help you identify the decisions you have to make about your separation and divorce, help you talk through those decisions, suggest possible solutions to your problems and put any agreement you reach into writing for your attorney to present to a Family Court Judge for their review.

Collaborative Law

Collaborative Law is a process that falls between mediation and litigation. It is a process where each spouse has an attorney who serves more as a “divorce coach” than as an advocate. The concept behind Collaborative Law is that both spouses and their “divorce coaches” work toward the common goal of creating an agreement that addresses all the issues related to your separation and divorce. As your “divorce coach”, our job is to help you identify the issues and problems that will arise as a result of your separation and divorce, help you gather the necessary information needed to solve the problems, determine which solutions are in the best interest of you, your spouse and your children, meet with you, your spouse and their “divorce coach” to work towards an agreement that meets everyone’s needs and, if an agreement is reached, do the legal work to obtain an order from a Family Court Judge approving the agreement.

Divorce Litigation

Not all couples can how to handle the financial and children’s issues agree before or soon after the separation. For husbands and wives who cannot agree, the Family Court system is available to them to make decisions for them about custody, visitation, child support, the division of their assets and debts, alimony, restraining orders and other related issues. As your lawyer, our job is to fight for you to help you get the best outcome possible from your separation and divorce. We do this by helping you determine the issues that have to be resolved, setting realistic goals for what you want out of the separation and divorce, gathering the necessary information to present your case to your spouse and a Family Court Judge, attempting to negotiate a settlement with your spouse and, if necessary, presenting your case to a Family Court Judge who make the decisions about the custody and visitation of your children and will resolve the financial disputes between you and your spouse.

Divorce

Ending your marriage is a major decision. If you decide that a divorce is best for you, you want to be sure that it is handled in a way that is consistent with your values and allows you to begin your new life under the best possible circumstances. As your divorce lawyer, we will discuss with you the grounds for divorce (or reasons you can get divorced) in South Carolina, identify the grounds for divorce that are available to you, help you choose which ground or grounds you want to request to use as the reason for your divorce, present your request for a divorce to a Family Court Judge and do the necessary paperwork to bring your marriage to an end so you can begin the next stage of your life.

Decree of Separate Maintenance

Custody and Visitation

One of the biggest concerns of spouses who are separating or divorcing is who will have primary responsibility for the children and what role will the other parent play in the children’s lives. These issues are typically referred to as “custody and visitation” by lawyers and judges in South Carolina. When deciding issues of custody and visitation, the overriding consideration for a Family Court Judge is the best interest of the children. During your divorce case, we will help you determine what you feel is in the children’s best interest and make every effort to persuade a Family Court Judge to implement the custody and visitation arrangement you feel is best.

Property and Debt Distribution (Equitable Distribution)

Unless your marriage lasted only a few days or weeks, you will have accumulated property and debt which needs to be divided if you separate or divorce. While the amounts of property and debt will be different for every marriage, it is always important to make certain that you are able to leave the marriage in the best financial condition possible. How the marital property and debts are divided can have a significant impact on your standard of living for years to come. We can help you get the best division of property and debts possible by helping you identify the assets and debts that are eligible to be divided, determine the values of each piece of property and the outstanding obligation on each debt, assess your financial needs and set goals for the division of the property and debts, negotiate for a division of the property and debts that will meet your financial needs and your goals and, if necessary, present the financial information to a Family Court Judge and fight for the best possible division of property and debts you can get.

Alimony

Restraining Orders

Attorney’s Fees

A divorce is an expensive process. Even when all your issues with your spouse are resolved by an agreement, you will still have a large legal bill because of all the work your attorney and their staff are required to do to make sure that every issue is addressed, that the agreement is fair to you, that the agreement will actually work in your day-to-day life and that the agreement is approved by a Family Court Judge. When you and your spouse are not able to agree, then your divorce becomes even more expensive because of the need for a trial where you and your lawyer present your story to a Family Court Judge through testimony and evidence to try and convince the judge to give you what you are asking for. Because your divorce will be expensive, one or both spouses usually ask that the other spouse be required to pay their attorney’s fees and other expenses related to the divorce case. When a Family Court Judge decides whether or not to require one spouse to pay for the other’s attorney’s fees and expenses they have to consider the outcome of the case, the amount of attorney’s fees and expenses and each spouse’s financial condition. If you are asking your spouse to pay your attorney’s fees, we will help you by presenting the necessary information to the judge to support your request that your spouse pays your attorney’s fees including an itemized statement and explanation of your attorney’s fees and expenses and an explanation of why your spouse, not you, should be responsible for paying your attorney’s fees and costs. If your spouse has asked for you to pay their attorney’s fees and expenses, we will help you by presenting to the judge the reasons why you should not be responsible including evidence of why your having to pay their fees and expenses would be unfair, evidence of your inability to pay, evidence of their ability to pay their own attorney’s fees and expenses and, if available, evidence that your spouse did things that unnecessarily increased their fees and made their request unreasonable.

Appeals from Family Court Orders

Judges, like all of us, sometimes make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes are small and will not have a long term or significant impact on you or your family. But there are times when a mistake is serious enough that it results in an Order that is not consistent with what the law and that is harmful to you and your family. When you feel a Family Court Judge has made a serious mistake, you have the ability to request that a group of judges from another court review that decision and decide if anything should be done to correct the mistake. The process of requesting the review is known as an “appeal”. Very few lawyers handle appeals because the process is very different from that of a trial and involves a substantial amount of legal research and legal writing together with oral arguments in front of a group of judges. As your appellate lawyers, we will help you review the Order you received from the Family Court Judge to determine if there are any mistakes that can be reviewed, discuss the likelihood of having the mistake corrected, weigh the advantages and disadvantages of filing an appeal and, if you decide to appeal the Family Court decision, do the necessary legal research and writing, then argue your case in front of the group of judges assigned to review your Order for mistakes.