Family Law Attorney Vancouver WA

In the state of Washington when a couple applies for a divorce (or dissolution) it is imperative that the man get a competent family law attorney to handle his case. To put it bluntly you can be guaranteed to you will absolutely screwed if you do not.

It is unfortunate but our laws are really heavily biased against men in any type of divorce. If you do not have a person who is trained at handling these types of cases you could find yourself in a situation that can haunt you for years to come. You could be stuck with paying for the mortgage on the house, paying maintenance payments to your wife (also known as alimony), assuming all past debts incurred during the marriage, and of course the child support payments.

You wife could be living lavish in a home you are paying for, spending your money you work hard for, and put you into a situation where you can only see your children every Sunday. And only if you call in advance!

More than likely if you have any substantial amount of assets and your wife does not work you will have to give up a large percentage of them. There are going to be a lot of battles you are going to loose even with the best family law Vancouver WA attorney money can buy.

The ultimate goal of yours is minimizing that percentage as much as your possibly can. You do not want to be "taken to the cleaners."

Divorces are expensive and really nobody wins. Considering this fact one would assume that less people would be so willing to get them. Many reasons why people get a divorce in the first place is out of pure selfishness. We live in a society where people do not want to comprise and work hard to make something work. Instant gratification has become the norm and looking at the long term is favorably talked about but rarely put into practice.

It has been proven that the standard of living goes down with both partners after they get a divorce. When you are married one home has to be maintained. All the family resources (physically, mentally, and emotionally) are going into that house to take care of the bills, investments, and of course the kids. When you get a dissolution any family law attorney can tell you that those resources must be split up.

The court has the impossible job of trying to split one family unit's limited resources up into two. To be fair many times a judge tries to do this as fair as he can. He may have even gotten a divorce himself so he knows what it feels like. Nevertheless, there are many things that cannot be split. The house and children are examples. And those items still have to be cared for. The children still need to be provided for and the mortgage does not disappear just because two marriage mates split. The only difference now is that one person has to not only pay for the former "family residence" but now pay for his own personal residence too.

Again, what a local family law attorney does is give you the best opportunity to a) stop your wife from literally getting all of your assets b) get a fair child support arrangement and c) persuade the judge to give you a somewhat fair ruling when it comes to paying for your wife's "maintenance" according to her former standard of living.

Here is the situation you can easily find yourself in if you do not get the proper family law legal aid:

You will be living in a small condo in Vancouver, WA.  You will have, of course, all the bills and expenses associated with that. 

In addition, you will still have to pay for all your necessary needs like food, gas, car payments, etc.  Fairly standard, nothing new there. 

Ah, but wait! 

You will also have to pay the mortgage for your former home you shared with your former wife.  All the expenses that are associated with that liability will fail squarely on you.  This includes all the yard work, association dues, and state/ city property taxes. 

Does that seem like a lot for one man to deal with? 

Maybe, but it does not stop there! You will also be responsible for monthly child support payments depending on how many children you have and your annual income.  And under Washington state law your child support payments can be as much as 45% of your net income.

The buck must stop here, right?

If your wife did work then this last part may not apply to you.  It depends on what kind of job she had and how much her income supported the family.  But if she did not you are in trouble.

Your wife has become accustomed to a certain lifestyle.  You are responsible for making certain she has some semblance of that lifestyle even after you both get a divorce.  Its know as "maintenance payments." 

To be fair to woman law was enacted by the courts in most states decades ago.  As much as fifty years ago husbands could leave their wives for a younger woman and provide not material support.  A middle age woman would be stranded, without any real career skills, and left to fend for herself.  This was actually the reason most woman did not get a divorce in the past, even if her husband was abusive or unfaithful. 

The courts wanted to rectify this so they started enacting and enforcing rules that forced husbands to pretty much support is ex wife after a divorce.  By 2010 these rules have been taken to the extreme, like many things, and are out of hand.

No excuses on this one guys.  You cannot afford it.

You need to get an attorney who has carved for himself a niche in the family law field.  He should be one who has made family law is main practice and does nothing more. 

There are more general attorneys out there who do a little of everything.  Handling a divorce case could be one of them.  He may do a decent job but an attorney whose cases were 95% in the family law realm would be much better.

The state of Washington is hard to men.  This is not a state that will let any man with a decent career walk away from a divorce in a dignified way.  You can be assured that if your wife wants to make you pay the legal system will be on her side.  That is just the way it is.

If you live southern Washington stated looking for a family law attorney Vancouver WA.  Find out if they specialize in family law and ask them about their track record.  How many cases have they handled this year?  What were the outcomes of them? 

You may have to spend a little more for the best ones in the city but it is worth it.