What is Litigation?

Litigation is the process lawyers engage in to prepare and take a case to court (or an arbitrator) for a decision.  The role of the attorney is to build their own case and to find ways to discredit the other side's case. A big part of this is gathering information - obtaining documents, interviewing...

What is a Settlement Conference?

Here in King County, and increasingly in other counties as well, parties are required to go through some kind of dispute resolution process prior to trial to see if the case can in fact be settled. The most common type of pre-trial dispute resolution in litigated cases is the settlement conference....

Amicable Divorce

I often have people come in for a consultation about an amicable divorce. They and their spouse agree that they want to keep the divorce amicable, and often they hope to be able to work out their own settlement between themselves (the "kitchen table" approach) without professionals. What makes me wo...

Curious Questioning

Curious questioning refers to asking questions that really are open ended - not supposing any particular answer but rather trying to gather information that we are genuinely curious about. Very often when we ask questions, there are certain answers we are really looking for.  We may be trying to...

Is Separate Property Off the Table?

In dividing property in a divorce, the Washington courts distinguish between separate property and community property. Community property refers to assets acquired by the couple during the marriage. Separate property refers to assets acquired by one of the parties outside of the marriage (prior to m...

Being Heard

As divorce attorneys, part of our job is helping your voice be heard. We need to make sure your concerns are heard by the court, by the other side, and by anyone else who may become involved in the case such as parenting evaluators, mediators, or expert witnesses. This doesn't mean just repeating wh...

Can My Spouse and I Use the Same Lawyer in a Divorce?

We frequently hear from people who are working out their own divorce settlements amicably, and they want to hire a single lawyer to assist them in completing the divorce. They even are considering the same lawyer to advise them as to what their final settlement should look like....

Congratulations: Mark Alexander Elected to the Family Law Executive Committee!

We just learned that Seattle Divorce Services attorney Mark Alexander has been elected to the statewide Family Law Executive Committee. That is a committee at the Washington State Bar Association that oversees issues related to Family Law in our state. We want to congratulate Mark on his electio...

Should I Go To A Big Downtown Law Firm For My Divorce?

As a general rule, a big law firm does a lot of business/commercial law, which I would guess is because that kind of law often requires a lot of manpower. On the other hand, divorce law is more typically practiced in small and solo law firms. The large commercial law firms may have a few family law...

Seeing Things Differently

This week I went in for cataract surgery. The next day when the bandages came off, it was quite amazing how everything looked different than what I was used to. Things are more brightly colored, they look a little closer, I can see great at a distance, but I need reading glasses for close up. Basica...
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