“Cost-Effective Child Custody Litigation is an invaluable guide for family law attorneys looking for cost saving tips to help advocate for clients.” At least that’s what our publisher says. In March of 2020, my co-author, Samuel Thomas, emailed me asking if I would be interested inauthoring this book with him. We were the co-chairs of the Modest Means Committee of theAmerican Bar Association Family Law Section then. Sam is a family law attorney in Athens, GA and at that time, a brand-new dad, with a lot on his plate. I, on the other hand, just came into loads of free time thanks to COVID and happily agreed. Not that I wouldn’t have made it work otherwise.
The truth is that there hasn’t been a billable hour when I didn’t think about how much money my work was costing the client. Even though our time costs hundreds of dollars an hour, that’s not reflective of what a divorce lawyer takes home. Despite all the greedy lawyer jokes, I’d like to think thevast majority of us family law attorneys are motivated by helping people, not financial gain. The addition of Cost-Effective Child Custody Litigation to law libraries around the country,including that of the Supreme Court of Maryland and Harvard Law, is a testament to that.
There were, however, very few resources for us to pull from in writing the book. Much of it is based on experience. The last chapter of the book, “Litigating Child Custody in a Pandemic”, was added in as we were learning how to navigate practicing during the pandemic ourselves. Aside from that chapter, the order of the chapters in the book mirror the timeline of representation. It starts off with discussing retainers and alternative billing practices and concludes with information on a cost-effective trial. The bulk of the book is cost saving tips on helpful technology, utilizing available public resources, collecting evidence, dealing with an unrepresented person on the other side, and techniques for settlement. There is also a chapter on
finding low-cost professionals, which I found helpful to have. There are a lot of other professionals that get involved in a high conflict custody case such as parenting coordinators,best interest attorneys, custody evaluators, expert witnesses, and visitation supervisors.
If you are reading this as a litigant, don’t be afraid to talk to your lawyer about what you can do to keep costs down. It’s no mystery that divorce and custody litigation is expensive. If you have conversations early on in your representation about how you plan to pay for it and what resources are available to you, your lawyer can be cognizant of that as they work on your case.
Click here to learn more about and to purchase Cost-Effective Child Custody.