Do you want a real estate attorney or a first-year attorney handling your divorce?  Would you let your dentist perform heart surgery on you?  Would you want a first-year heart surgeon doing the surgery?  The answers to all of these questions are likely “no.”

The economy has had a devastating impact to many areas of our society and the legal field has not been immune.  Many attorneys have seen a substantial decline in their area of practice.  For example, at the peak of the real estate boom, there were thousands of busy real estate attorneys conducting real estate closings.  However, in recent years, real estate closings are down significantly.  Many of these attorneys were either terminated from their firm or experienced a significant decrease in work.  In addition, many non-lawyers who lost their jobs in other fields went to law school.  These recent law school graduates are now entering the work force.

Dangers of Inexperienced Attorneys
Attorneys, like many others in this economy, are attempting to adapt.  Many are trying to move to new areas of practice, including family law.  While there is nothing wrong with someone changing careers, you need to be informed and wary regarding the experience an attorney brings to your legal issue.  Attorneys typically spend years either practicing with an experienced lawyer or gaining experience in their field.   Due to market conditions, the current legal market is filled with inexperienced attorneys – particularly in the field of family law.

We receive calls on a weekly basis from less experienced attorneys asking for advice on handling a particular family law case.  In some instances, it is clear that the attorney does not have a grasp on the client’s situation.   They are missing the important issues and do not have the experience to handle the problems in the case.  We often have people come to our office with divorce agreements or documents that are poorly drafted or that failed to provide adequate protections.  In some instances, the mistakes cannot be fixed.  In other cases, correcting the problem costs more than the original divorce.  This additional expense could have been avoided if an experienced attorney was consulted from the beginning.

How to Select an Attorney
If your situation presents a very simple family law problem (no children, limited assets, no real estate, etc.), an inexperienced attorney may be adequate.  However, for many cases, a more experienced attorney is recommended.  When selecting an attorney for a Georgia family law problem, we suggest you research the following:  years of practice, years of family law practice, discipline issues, number of cases handled, and experience in local county courts.  Reviewing attorney websites created to market to potential clients and reading anonymous internet reviews won’t tell you if an attorney is right for you and your family’s situation, so I encourage you to personally interview your prospective attorney and ask lots of questions.

At Spooner and Associates, we have nearly 20 years of combined family law experience.  We have handled over 1,000 family law cases for many satisfied clients.  Make sure you hire the right, experienced law firm to solve your family law problem – not create new problems.

Read the complete April 2012 Newsletter from Spooner & Associates, PC

Imagine you have just been served with a lawsuit concerning a business issue and you find that you have been named personally in the lawsuit. Why were you sued when your company performed the work? After all, you formed a corporation to protect your personal assets. Unfortunately, if you fail to operate your company properly, a plaintiff can “pierce the corporate veil.” This means you may be personally responsible for the acts of your company. Now your house, your savings, and your future are at risk.

Now is a great time to review your corporate records to ensure that your business is legally up to date. Corporate paperwork, while sometimes time consuming to maintain and compile, is essential to the proper operation of your business. The records you keep will often protect you in the event that you are ever involved in a lawsuit. Paperwork often seems like an aggravating little detail that can always be put off, but the lack of properly maintained corporate records can be a potential disaster for your business and your personal financial assets. There are three items you should review in order to protect yourself.

One of the easiest and most basic things to do is to check your corporate filings with the Georgia Secretary of State. Are you registered with the Secretary of State? Are all your annual registrations up to date? If your business was formed in another state and you are doing business in Georgia, have you registered with the Secretary of State?

Another step, while more time consuming, is to review your corporate books. Do you have corporate books or a place for all your corporate documents? Do you have an operating agreement or partnership agreement with your partners? If you are a corporation, did you elect Statutory Close Corporation Status? If not, have you documented the minutes from your annual meeting? Have you documented all major decisions your business made in the past year in your corporate books? Resolving these issues can help protect you and your company.

Finally, review the documents on which your business forms relationships with clients. Do you enter into contracts with your clients? Do you have clients approve purchase orders, estimates, or invoices before you perform work? Do these forms clearly set out the work to be performed, the schedule, and when and how you are to be paid? Do these forms adequately protect you in the event that your customer doesn’t pay you? The failure to have proper procedures and documents often results in lost income, disputes, and lawsuits.

If you are unsure if your corporation is in compliance or if your forms are adequate, then you may have a problem. Our business is to help solve your problems. We would rather you see us now to preempt any problems than see us later when the fix will likely be much more expensive. To learn more about other business solutions we provide, please visit our website at www.SpoonerLaw.com.

Modifying Your Divorce Decree – An Agreement May Not Be Enough!

After a divorce, family situations can change: the children get older, jobs change, a former spouse relocates, or you or your ex-spouse remarries. Many of life’s twists and turns can result in the need for a change to your divorce decree.

Often the parties reach a mutual agreement on revising the terms of the divorce. For example, if one parent moves, the parents may agree to change their visitation arrangement. If there is an income change, the parents may agree to modify child support or other monetary obligations. In many situations, the former spouses reach a verbal agreement or even write up an agreement, but many fail to have their divorce decree changed by the Court. Saving a few dollars on an attorney now can result in expensive consequences later.

We often have clients come to us after problems arise with their informal agreement. A typical situation occurs when a non-custodial parent loses a job. The custodial parent agrees to accept less (or no) child support for a period of time. Later on a dispute between the parents results in the custodial parent demanding the “back” child support due under the divorce decree. Since the divorce decree was never modified by the Court to reflect the informal agreement, the non-custodial parent can be ordered to pay the “back” support.

How can this be avoided? The former spouses can have an attorney draw up a document reflecting the change, file the appropriate Motion with the Court, and have a Judge approve the change. The modified divorce agreement then becomes the new, enforceable agreement.

There are numerous situation that may warrant a modification of a divorce decree. Our firm is well versed in this area and our attorneys are happy to assist you. If you would like to discuss any issues regarding a modification or other family law issue, please contact us. We are here to help solve your problems.

Read the complete March 2012 Newsletter from Spooner & Associates, PC