Whole Lotta Choices

Recently, on the "San Diego Living" TV program, Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Garrison "Bud" Klueck and Attorney Kimberly Kirkpatrick talked about the large number of choices people have in their family law case and those offered by their firm.

QUESTION - Our Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Bud Klueck is back with us again. Bud is here with one of the other attorneys in the law firm. Bud, whom did you bring with you this morning?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– This is attorney Kimberly Kirkpatrick. Kim was here once before and we are here to discuss choices and options for folks with family law issues or legal problems.

QUESTION - Most people don’t know that there are several courts involved in family law, tell us briefly what they are?

ATTORNEY KIRKPATRICK’S ANSWER - Well, there are three different types of courts that make decisions about the care and custody of children - family court, juvenile court, and probate court. Folks don’t generally realize that. Family court handles essentially dad vs. mom type custody issues, juvenile court involves cases where there is alleged child abuse or neglect, and probate court involves people, other than the parents becoming guardians for the children, like grandparents.

QUESTION - And you need attorneys with expertise in each type of court, does your firm have expertise with all of these courts?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– Yes, we’ve done hundreds if not thousands of family law cases along with many cases in juvenile court and guardianships in probate court.

QUESTION - What should people be looking for in hiring a family law attorney?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– Well, it’s kind of my mission in life to tell them that they have many choices, not just among lawyers, but sometimes within the firm itself. For example, we have male and female attorneys, we have a Certified Specialist, and we have a variety of billable rates. But the methodology itself is most important. You need to match the family with the right methodology because there’s so many choices. We actually have a poem we like to say: "Litigation, Mediation or Collaborative Law, Divorce is No Longer One Size Fits All".

So there are many choices - 1. Litigation - the old fashioned, go to court method, 2. Mediation - involving a trained neutral third party, like myself, with more than a year of special training, 3. Collaborative Divorce - which is a team approach with a mental health and financial planning aspect added to the mix, and 4. Cooperative Divorce - which is similar to Collaborative Divorce, but allows you to kind of pick and choose the additional elements (like - financial planning) to include.

QUESTION - It’s important to choose an attorney that you feel comfortable with and who is accommodating to your needs - how do you make sure that you choose an attorney who is comfortable with exactly what you’re looking for?

ATTORNEY KIRKPATRICK’S ANSWER - In our firm, we have 3 different attorneys and 3 different paralegals, which is a pretty high ratio of paralegals to attorneys. And paralegals are to attorneys like nurses are to doctors, they’re professionals in their own right but with different roles. Ultimately, having 6 different professionals in our office gives potential clients lots of choice over who they would like to work with. And it allows us to pride ourselves on getting back to clients in a timely manner - whether through e-mail, telephone, etc. - whatever they’re most comfortable with.

QUESTION - Sounds like an excellent place to entrust your family law case. Thank you Kim and Bud. If you want experience and an approachable attitude towards family law, call Bud or Kim at their office. You should contact them in the firm's main office in La Mesa, near San Diego State, or any of the four satellite offices around the County - La Jolla, North County, downtown or South Bay. Just call the number (619)-448-6500 or access the web site directly at www.familylawsandiego.com or through the link at the San Diego 6 website.

Options and choices!. Great topic Bud, as usual.
　

Military Issues in Family Law

During a recent appearance on the "San Diego Living" program, Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Garrison "Bud" Klueck talked about some of the issues that come up in family law cases involving military servicemembers.

QUESTION - Our Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Bud Klueck is back with us again. Bud says he recently did some public speaking about a particularly San Diego-type topic. Bud, what topic is that?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– It’s always gratifying being invited to speak in front of other attorneys on a particular topic because it obviously implies that others think you know that you’re doing. I was recently on a panel of well-known family lawyers who addressed a seminar on handling military issues in family law in Oceanside, near Camp Pendleton.

QUESTION - I imagine those issues are huge matters in San Diego family law cases, right?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER - Yes, everyone in San Diego is either in the military, are military dependant, or know some military, veteran, or retiree families. And in family law, there are special rules, laws and concerns when it comes to military servicemembers.

QUESTION - You said that there were special rules, special laws and special concerns. What are some of them?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– The major one centers around deployment, where a servicemember is sent away, usually overseas. For example, the law specifically says that you cannot lose custody of your child because you’re deployed . But, I believe that’s a relatively recent law, enacted in 2005 and effective in 2006.

But you obviously can’t care for your child from the deck of an aircraft carrier. So you have to go to court and get new orders that are consistent with your deployment and when you come back.
There are also reintroduction issues when the servicemember is coming back from deployment. For example, you want to file the necessary paperwork so that the court appearance can happen very close in time from when the member returns, and you need an attorney who knows such tricks of the trade.

QUESTION - What about special issues regarding child support? Are there any?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– Yes, mainly because military pay is very complex. There are all sorts of different types with different meanings - like sea pay, hazardous pay, basic pay, basic housing allowance, etc. And to make matters more complicated, some of it is taxable and some is non-taxable.

You also need to know how to read a LES, or Leave and Earning Statement, which is military nomenclature for a pay stub. But it gets much more complicated than that. Military servicemembers need an attorney who can read and analyze these documents and present them to the judge, who usually wants the attorney to direct the calculations.

QUESTION - Sounds very complicated, Bud. So if you want to talk to the lawyer who lectures other lawyers on military family law, call Bud’s office. You should contact Bud in the firm's main office in La Mesa, near San Diego State, or any of the four satellite offices around the County - La Jolla, North County, downtown or South Bay. Just call the number (619)-448-6500 or access the web site directly at www.familylawsandiego.com or through the link at the San Diego 6 website.

Military family law!. Great topic Bud, as usual.
　

President's Day with Bud

During a President’s Day appearance on the "San Diego Living" TV program, Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Garrison "Bud" Klueck talked about the similarities he shares with some famous historical figures, most notably Abraham Lincoln.

QUESTION - Our Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Bud Klueck is back again. Bud says he wants to talk about sharing a profession with a few great men. Bud, what is that about?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– When people ask me what I do for a living, I always say I share a profession with Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln. And they say really? What’s that? And I say of course, I’m an attorney.

QUESTION - If I remember correctly, you also had a recent connection to one of those great men, Nelson Mandela, right?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER - Yes, I took a trip last fall to South Africa as part of a delegation of family and juvenile court lawyers and judges. And we actually got to see the 6 X 5 cell that Mandela was kept in on Robbin Island for 25 years.

QUESTION - Well Gandhi, Mandela and Lincoln were great, famous men; They all may have been attorneys but not principally known as attorneys, right?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– Gandhi and Mandela were mostly known as political activists, but Lincoln was an attorney for more than 25 years. If you think about it, he was only in public office for about 6 years of his life - 1 term in congress and 1 term plus a few days as President. The rest of his adult life he was a practicing attorney.

QUESTION - Wow, law must have been a lot different then. Do you know anything about Lincoln’s practice?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– The big difference is that there were no specialties back then, whereas today the State Bar has Certified Specialists in a number of areas of law. Essentially, all attorneys were generalists doing a lot of types of law. For example, Lincoln did some real estate law, criminal law including murder cases, and even 200 family law cases, including 145 divorces.

QUESTION - Are there any other similarities between you and Lincoln?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER - There are so many similarities, it’s uncanny. We’re both white attorneys from the mid-west. I’m in my 50s, Lincoln was in his 50s when President. He was President of the United States, I was President of the Santee Chamber of Commerce and East County Bar Association. Lincoln had a beard; I have a beard. His nickname Abe had three letters and my nickname Bud has three letters. Lincoln was born in a log cabin; I built a log cabin out of Lincoln Logs. We have so much in common that, in honor of our 16th President, I’d like everyone to refer to me as Honest Bud for the rest of the day.

QUESTION - If you want to contact Honest Bud, call him in the firm's main office in La Mesa, near San Diego State, or any of the four satellite offices around the County - La Jolla, North County, downtown or South Bay. Just call the number (619)-448-6500 or access the web site directly at www.familylawsandiego.com or through the link at the San Diego 6 website.

Honest Abe and Honest Bud!. Great topic Bud, as usual.
　

Legal Ethics with Bud Klueck

Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Garrison "Bud" Klueck recently appeared on the "San Diego Living" TV program to talk about what it means for an attorney to be on "The Higher Ground" when it comes to legal ethics.

QUESTION - Our Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Bud Klueck is here. Bud says he wants to talk about "being on the higher ground" when it comes to legal ethics. Bud, what does that mean?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– Ethics is an important concern to all professionals, whether you’re a CPA, doctor, or attorney. While most people know that in order to become an attorney you have to pass the Bar exam, I don’t think most people know that there are actually two bar exams you have to pass. One is the substantive Bar exam that tests your knowledge of the actual law, whether it be Constitutional Law, the Rules of Evidence, etc. The other exam is the PRE, or Professional Responsibility Exam, that tests legal ethics. In fact, you can’t even graduate from law school before passing legal ethics.
Further, once you’ve graduated and become an attorney, there is continuing education that you have to keep up to date on, and its biggest requirement is ethics.

QUESTION - Okay, the Bar sets a level of ethics for attorneys. But what about all this "higher ground" business?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER - To illustrate my point, I want to turn to an outside source - the Bible. In a part of the Christian Bible called the Gospel According to Matthew, there’s the famous Sermon on the Mount. And in the Sermon, Jesus contrasts what the written law (essentially the 10 Commandments) required with what He himself requires. For example, Jesus would say, the law says thou shall not kill, but I say don’t even let yourself get angry. Or, thou shall not commit adultery, but I say don’t even think about it, dude. In fact, Jimmy Carter famously said "I lusted after women in my heart", and he was referring to that passage in the Bible.

QUESTION - Well, you certainly seem to understand that passage in the Bible, but how does that relate to your law practice?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– The law requires attorneys to do or refrain from doing certain things. For example, you can’t charge unconscionable fees and any fees you do charge you have to keep track of. But we go beyond that at my firm. When someone hires us, part of the packet of information we give them is a handout titled "Suggestions for Limiting Fees". Maybe that’s why I’m not the richest lawyer.

QUESTION - That’s great, Bud. An attorney who tells you, in writing, how to limit your attorney’s fees. Anything else on the higher ground?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– Yes. Along with the Suggestions for Limiting Fees handout, we also give clients several other handouts, many of which are not even related to family law - as a service to the public in our attempt to reach that "Higher Ground". We have a "When You Turn 18" handout, a "Seniors and the Law" handout, and Spanish language versions of all handouts as well.

QUESTION - Well, if you want an attorney whose ethics are on the highest level, or you just want one of the handouts that Bud talked about, http://www.adivorcechoice.comcontact him in the firm's main office in La Mesa, near San Diego State, or any of the four satellite offices around the County - La Jolla, North County, downtown or South Bay. Just call the number (619)-448-6500 or access the web site directly at www.familylawsandiego.com or through the link at the San Diego 6 website.

Going to the Higher Ground. Great topic Bud, as usual.
　

HOLIDAY VISITATIONS

During a recent airing of “San Diego Living”, Board-Certified Family Law Specialist attorney Garrison “Bud” Klueck appeared to talk about the legal aspects of visitations and vacations during the Holiday season.

QUESTION: Our Board-Certified Family Law Specialist lawyer Bud Klueck has some thoughts about holiday vacations from the legal point of view. Bud, what advice do you have for parents concerned about the holidays and their children?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: I have four main points for our viewers to consider. Number 1--at this late date, probably no changes can occur through the court; Number 2--make a note to get started early if you want changes next year; Number 3--your best assurance of a happy holiday sharing would be to adhere to the existing court orders very specifically; and Number 4--practice and expect cooperation with your co-parent, but get your understandings formalized and in writing. Don't put yourself in a position where your having a successful holiday depends on the late-in-the-day cooperation of your co-parent, because you may not get it.

QUESTION: Bud, let's review your four points. If I remember correctly, the first one was that you can't expect to go to court for last-minute changes in holiday visitation. Was that correct?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Exactly right. The courts do permit folks to come to court on short notice, but only if it is a true emergency. The fact that Jimmy or Jenny have to leave for grandma's house a day later, may seem like a real emergency to you, but that is not the way that courts define the type of emergency that they are looking to discuss. The Court Rules state that the only two types of emergencies they will look at, on a short-notice basis, are 1) if there is a credible and immediate danger that children will be physically harmed, or 2) that the children will be taken out of California--over the other parent's objections.

To understand what kind of emergencies the Court will consider, please think about the following: an example of the first type would be mom saying that she is thinking of committing suicide and will be taking the child with her; or an example of the second type would be that dad is threatening to take the children back to Mexico and threatening that the mother will never see them again. The court will "entertain," which is a technical term for a look at, those types of emergencies--but nothing much short of that. So, as to working out the last-minute details, about the holiday visitation, you are more-or-less on your own to work it out with the other parent. You cannot expect the courts to help or to intervene.

QUESTION: Well, what if the bad thing that you are concerned about actually happens?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: If you cannot work it out with your co-parent, you may have to suffer through it this year and vow to change things for next year. My earlier remarks, about not going to court, only were confined to short-notice, emergency kind of situations. What the courts encourage is filing motions, giving plenty of advance notice to the other side and to the court, and then to come to court and address the visitation issues. Custody and visitation, as well as child support, are always modifiable whenever circumstances changes.

A possible change of circumstances is having one parent refusing to be cooperative, accommodating and reasonable in the sharing of the children. So if you have a demonstrable record of an unwillingness to share, keep track of it, make a record and share it with the court in the new year. I do not want viewers to somehow misunderstand my earlier remarks to conclude that courts are not interested in folks' child-sharing concerns. The courts are concerned. But getting the courts to look at these issues takes a while and cannot happen on a last-minute basis unless there’s a true emergency.

QUESTION: Your third point was to adhere to the existing court orders very specifically, right?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Yes. That is your best defense. Remember, the courts are closed on the holidays. Running to court is not an option. Ordinarily you already have court orders. The best way to operate is to do exactly what the court orders say, at least in the short run. If there is a problem with the court orders, as I said earlier, try to change them in the new year. In the short run, adhere as closely as possible to the exact letter of the law and the court orders.

QUESTION: Your last point was essentially to be cooperative but to get everything in writing. Is that about it?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Yes. What I said earlier about being cooperative applies to both parents. It is great, even ideal, when the two adults in the room--the parents--can behave like grown-ups and be understanding and cooperative about the sharing of their children. However, consistent with what I said about adhering to the court orders exactly and specifically, if the two parents are working out together something a little different from the court orders, that is okay (and even encouraged), but make the new understanding as detailed and specific as possible and in writing--usually by e-mails.

QUESTION: Fascinating. You always give us both learned and very practical, everyday advise. If you have questions about any of the numerous perplexing issues in family law, call Bud at (619) 448-6500 or access the web site directly at www.familylawsandiego.com or through the link at the SAN DIEGO 6 website.

Bud, thank you, again.

ACCESS TO JUSTICE

During a recent airing of “San Diego Living”, Board-Certified Family Law Specialist attorney Garrison “Bud” Klueck appeared to talk about people’s ability to access competent legal representation and how the amount of attorney’s fees and the way they are charged affect such access.

QUESTION: Our Board-Certified Family Law Specialist attorney Bud Klueck is here. Bud says he wants to talk about “access to justice”. Bud, what does “access to justice” mean to you?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: At a minimum it means having the “keys to the courthouse door", but it's more than that. It involves whether you will be walking through the courthouse door with somebody by your side who knows what they're doing, can help you and will defend you -- in other words, a competent, aggressive, experienced attorney. On a more meaningful level, access to justice asks whether you have affordable access to an attorney to represent you and to defend you. This is particularly true if the other side has an attorney. In a very practical and meaningful way, it will be almost impossible for you to receive justice unless you have somebody to fight on your side and to seek justice on your behalf.

QUESTION: Okay you convinced us. We are all sure that it’s better to have a competent attorney with you if you’re going to court. But how can people get affordable attorneys so they can have access to justice?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Like I always say, the two favorite words of attorneys are not "pay me," but -- "it depends." When it comes to considerations of access to justice, how the person going to court obtains an attorney and for how much depends on what kind of a case it is. If you have been accused of a crime, the court can appoint an attorney for you and you will not ordinarily have to pay for that attorney at that time. We know this for certain because we all remember from the Miranda warnings, that we have heard hundreds of times in cop show scripts, "you have a right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you." These types of attorneys are ordinarily called Public Defenders. Although you have a right to have these attorneys appointed to defend you, and you will not have to pay any money immediately, you ordinarily have to pay back the state for part or all of their costs. A second kind of case is what is known as a "civil case." These are cases for money damages. For example, if someone hits you with their car and injures you, you would sue them for money damages. Ordinarily, you do not pay for your attorney up front. The attorneys receive their compensation by receiving a percentage of the damage award or settlement. However, in the kind of law that I do, family law, the person needing an attorney ordinarily pays that attorney out of their pocket and the costs ordinarily start at the beginning of the case.

QUESTION: How are the payments in a family law case arranged?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: There are two components or parts to how family lawyers get compensated, the Retainer and the periodic payments. The retainer is what is paid up front to create a professional relationship between the attorney and the client. It is paid at the beginning of the relationship kind of like a "down payment." The periodic payments, as the term suggests, are the payments that are made every so often as the case progresses. Because those are the only two elements of the financial relationship between the attorney and the client, the attorney or the law firm's policy and attitudes towards retainers and periodic payments will determine whether that attorney or that firm makes access to justice easier, harder or practically speaking, impossible.

QUESTION: How these financial considerations affect a person’s access to justice?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Well pretty obviously, if you cannot afford to pay the attorney at the very threshold of your relationship, that attorney is not going to be representing you and will not be around to help give you access to justice. In my firm's view, the method that most attorneys and law firms demand for a retainer is not consistent with permitting most middle-class people to have access to justice. The size of the retainer is often a very high barrier which serves to kind of "lock the courthouse door" on them. Our approach to retainers is materially different than many or most law firms of a similar level of professional competence and sophistication. Our approach is different in two important ways. The first is flexibility and the second is size.

QUESTION: Why don't you tell us how other firms handle retainers and then contrast the way your firm handles them?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: To begin with, when you are talking about attorneys, and
possibly other professionals like doctors, CPAs or dentists, you always need to compare "apples to apples." That is, attorney compensation rates are generally closely tied to their level of experience and their professional credentials. For example, I have been practicing since 1987 -- a total of 21 going on 22 years. The most important credential that attorneys can get is to have the state bar acknowledge you as a Board-Certified Specialist. As I have remarked before, Board-Certified Specialists represent only about 2% or 3% of the attorneys licensed in California. That is, 97% or 98% of licensed attorneys are Not Board-Certified Specialists. So when you are talking about attorney compensation rates, you would have to compare a Board-Certified Specialist, with about 15, 20 or 25 years of experience, with the rates of other, similarly situated attorneys with similar amounts of experience.
Those types of attorneys generally set their retainers rather high, at $5,000, $7,500 or $10,000. Those retainers generally do not change from case-to-case no matter how complex or simple the matter is. We are different. To begin with, our retainers are flexible and vary depending on the complexity of the matter we are being retained to handle. More importantly, our retainers generally are somewhat smaller than our peers--the similarly-situated attorneys.

QUESTION: You take smaller retainers? Does that mean you are willing to accept less compensation to handle a case?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Not really. We just believe strongly that those high retainers represent a high barrier to access to justice. To ask the client to come up with that much money, at the very threshold of the case, represents a huge burden and a real barrier to their finding quality and experienced representation. What we do instead is to set a lower retainer but require all of our clients pay each month for one hour of my time, at a minimum. The hoped-for effect is that, over time, both our office and the high-retainer attorneys will be paid the same. We just spread the payments out. It's kind of like layaway or time payments. There is a scene in the classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life" where the evil and rich Mr. Potter gets into an argument with the hero George Bailey. In the time period depicted, the twenties, paying for things over time was a reasonably new concept to the American economy. The evil Mr. Potter argued that people needed to save up enough money to buy a house outright while Jimmy Stewart, playing George Bailey, thought that people should be able to get a mortgage and to pay for the house over time. Our office operates similarly. We lower the initial high barrier, by lowering the retainer, and spreading the payments over time. Thus, permitting access to justice.

QUESTION: Are you comfortable discussing what kind of money we are talking about here?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Yes and no. As you might imagine, I am not willing, and it would be unprofessional for me, to discuss my finances in detail on the public airwaves. Viewers, or their friends, relatives, co-workers or associates would have to call our office to set up a free one-half-hour appointment to discuss financial issues with our office. What I am comfortable saying is that typically our retainers are a four-figure number where the first digit is not a five or a seven but a two. Of course our retainers vary with the complexity of the case, but usually they are two-thousand something, not five thousand or ten-thousand. Again, for any more details the potential client would have to set up an appointment. However, I will add that retainers are different if you are hiring us to file a motion for you as opposed to a divorce. The retainer for a motion is generally substantially less. It is all about trying to provide folks with access to justice.

QUESTION: If you want access to justice, call Bud for any family-law-related case or topic. You should contact Bud in the firm's main office in La Mesa, near San Diego State, or any of the four satellite offices around the County - La Jolla, North County, downtown or South Bay. Just call the number (619) 448-6500 or go to the website directly at www.familylawsandiego.com or through the San Diego 6 website.

Access to Justice – Great topic, Bud, as usual.

THROWING THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER

Board-Certified Family Law Specialist attorney Garrison “Bud” Klueck recently appeared on the “San Diego Living” program to talk about “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” and options for saving money on attorney’s fees.

QUESTION: Our Board-Certified Family Law Specialist attorney Bud Klueck is here. Bud says some people have a tendency to “throw the baby out with the bathwater”. Bud, how does that happen in family law?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Well, throwing the baby out with the bathwater is the time-tested cliché about overreacting to a bad situation. The person sees a bad situation to be solved or avoided, but the solution the person adopts is so extreme that it is counterproductive. The solution is worse than the problem.

QUESTION: We are all probably familiar with what the expression means, but how does it apply to family law?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Almost everybody has heard some horror story about how much their sister's or their cousin's or their neighbor's divorce cost. Or the folks have heard about the attorney’s fees and costs of some other kind of law case, like a civil case for money damages or a criminal case, like a DUI. Well, attorneys are professionals who have gone to school for a long time and have passed tough State exams, like a doctor or a dentist, and like doctors or dentists, charge their clients accordingly. However, my first piece of advice when you are listening to someone complain about their attorney bill, or their doctor bill or their dentist bill, is that you are hearing only one side of the story. There may well have been some complications in the case which the person who is telling you about the bill did not really understand or is keeping from you. But even if the person fully understood everything, which is tough whenever any of us are dealing outside of our own chosen field, and even if the description of how much the case cost was accurate, there is still a danger that hearing about it might trigger the dreaded throwing the baby out with the bath water reaction.

QUESTION: Why is that true?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Because it might tempt the listener to conclude that, if and when they get divorced, get arrested or get sued, that they will try to do it themselves - Never a good idea, just as it is not a good idea to take out your own appendix or to pull your own teeth. This is particularly true when there are so many ways to limit and save on attorney’s fees and costs. That is my real message. My message is not that you should not worry about attorneys fees. Rather, it is to take rational and sensible steps to save on fees rather than try to do-it-yourself. There is so much middle ground between letting your attorney handle everything, no matter what it costs, and trying to represent yourself in a very complex area of law. The more sensible question is how can I limit my fees or how can I save money, not how can I do-it-myself?
QUESTION: But some people can’t afford an attorney no matter what. You understand that don’t you?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Yes, of course that's true. But that doesn't mean they should not get legal assistance. There are free attorney services available for the indigent and those folks need to take advantage of that. But there are plenty of middle class people who could afford to have their own attorney, but decide not to having been scared off by the horror stories that they heard about someone else's divorce. Again, the productive focus here is how to have an attorney but limit the costs.

QUESTION: What are some ways to limit the costs?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: The first thing to understand is that there is a connection between how much the spouses are wrangling or fighting and the fees they will incur. The first key to limit fees is to ask yourself – is what you are fighting about worth what you are paying to fight over it? A lot of times, when clients think it over, the answer is no. Secondly, understand that you will be charged for everything. Ask yourself, can my ex and I work out this day care problem, or do we really have to turn it over to the attorneys and have them charge us? Do I have to make that phone call to my attorney or write that e-mail because you will be charged for it if you do? Maybe you do need to make the call or to send the e-mail. But maybe you can get away with not doing it. Maybe the passage of time will lessen or eliminate the problem. The way to save fees is to be conscious of saving fees throughout the case. Thirdly, maybe the top attorney in the office may not be needed for some particular issue or task. Usually, the attorney's office will channel the various tasks to the appropriate personnel, but we are all so busy. As you are strategizing with your attorney about your case, don't be afraid to ask, could the paralegal or the associate handle that task? I would welcome such an inquiry because I may not have thought about it, and if you are right that is one less thing for senior counsel to have on his plate--cool, one less thing for me to have to do. However, the flip side of that is that if your attorney tells you why the particular task needs his attention, please let the task be handled at the level that is appropriate. Another way to save money is unbundling.

QUESTION: What is unbundling?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: It is the short-hand term for what is often referred to as discrete-task representation. That is a situation where you can hire attorney to handle a particular discrete task. For example, you essentially are representing yourself, but you hire the attorney to go to court for this one particular hearing. Or the case has settled, through mediation perhaps, and you hire the attorney to review the final marital agreement. Maybe you do try to represent yourself, but you hire the attorney as a paid consultant and you go to consult with the attorney on an "as needed" basis from time to time, as the case progresses. You only pay for the limited services that the attorney does for you. Now you are still technically representing yourself, but you are not out on a limb trying to do something you were never trained to do in a field that you don't know much about. You have someone, who has been trained and is sophisticated in the field, to help you in your self-representation. Then there is the A-bomb of attorney fee saving.

QUESTION: What is the “A-bomb of attorney saving”?
ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Mediation. We have talked about that before. You hire the attorney to act as a neutral. The attorney doesn't represent husband or represent wife. The attorney acts as a neutral who uses his or her skills, training and experience to help the parties resolve their disputes. Not only are there usually less fees in bringing the case to a conclusion but the attorney, because he is a neutral, can prepare the documents for both sides. That is usually a big savings.

QUESTION: I assume, because you brought them up, that your office is able and prepared to help folks with all of these money saving methods?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER: Yes, of course. When people hire us, one of the documents that our clients receive is a handout on how to save attorney’s fees. We are among a minority of law firms willing and eager to do unbundling or limited representation. And I am a credentialed mediator. I got my first mediation training in the mid-90s and have been mediating ever since. I have a full credential from the National Conflict Resolution Center--few mediators in family law have that kind of credential.

QUESTION: Kind of weird, but refreshing - An attorney who is all about saving you attorney fees. If you want to talk to Bud about saving attorney’s fees for any other family-law-related case or topic, you should contact Bud in the firm's main office in La Mesa, near San Diego State, or any of the four satellite offices around the County - La Jolla, North County, downtown or South Bay. Just call the number (619)-448-6500 or access the web site directly at www.familylawsandiego.com or through the link at the San Diego 6 website.

Saving attorney’s fees. Great topic Bud, as usual.