Is an Aggressive Divorce Attorney Right for me?

Overly aggressive divorce attorneys may be negatively thought of by judges and court staff. Judges are people too. If an attorney has a reputation of being unnecessarily aggressive or frivolously litigious, judges and court staff may respond more adversely to requests made by that attorney.

Aggressive divorce attorneys are less likely to compromise. Compromise is key during divorce proceedings, because it is impossible for both parties to walk away with full custody, child support, alimony, the marital residence and all the marital property. If an attorney is not willing to compromise, even when it is the best outcome for his or her client, it will ultimately be harder to settle the case.

Overly aggressive attorneys tend to take outrageous or unwinnable positions on cases. When a divorce attorney takes an unwinnable position on a case, that attorney loses credibility with the court and alienates the other party and his or her attorney. This negatively effects the client by reducing the chances for settlement, and ultimately disappoints the client when the outcome at trial is not as expected.

Overly aggressive divorce lawyers do not provide clients with realistic case assessments. One primary role of divorce attorneys is, after reviewing the facts and circumstances of a case, to provide his or her client with a realistic case assessment. This way the client has a general idea of what to expect going forward. When aggressive attorneys fail to provide their clients with realistic case assessments, the client is ultimately disappointed when the matter does not proceed as the attorney has predicted.

Aggressive divorce attorneys often inflate client expectations and promise results that are not feasible or realistic. Similar to the two reasons listed immediately above, when an aggressive divorce attorney promises a client an unrealistic result, the client may rebuff reasonable settlement offers with the expectation that he or she is entitled to a better offer only to be disappointed at trial.

Aggressive attorneys makes it harder for parties to communicate and compromise post-divorce. Overly aggressive divorce attorneys often add the tension already present during divorce litigation. This added tension or hostility often irreparably damages the relationship between the two parties causing them to have difficulty communicating or co-parenting post-divorce. Visitation exchanges, birthday parties, school events could all end up being unnecessarily hostile as the negative feelings from divorce spill into everyday life.

Unnecessarily aggressive attorneys cause overall divorce costs to increase. Divorce costs increase exponentially when litigation is unnecessarily extended or expanded. It is not uncommon for overly aggressive divorce attorneys to take legal positions or have legal tactics that increase the scope of litigation and increase the time it takes to either settle the divorce matter to proceed to a final hearing in the matter. When a divorce matter is expanded in this way, attorney's fees increase, and they may be compounded by fees associated with other divorce experts as well.