Mechanicsburg & Harrisburg, PA Divorce Lawyer

Experienced Family Law Attorney

If you are facing a divorce, you are likely dealing with a range of emotions and have a lot of questions. It’s common for divorcing spouses to be emotionally exhausted by the time they simply arrive at the decision to get divorced and would like to just “get it over with”. The decisions made during your divorce will affect almost every aspect of your life for the foreseeable future. Working with an experienced attorney who will protect your rights and work towards the best outcome for you and your family is a worthwhile investment.

Conflict Level in a Divorce - Divorce Does Not Start in Court

While it's likely that conflict between you and your ex-spouse is what lead you to divorce, that doesn't mean that your divorce needs to be full of conflict. There is a misconception that the fighting that lead to a divorce needs to continue throughout the divorce process. That is simply not true. There IS such a thing as a “good divorce.” There is no law stating that every divorce must be a terrible experience. Even if there are emotions to process, either in therapy or with trusted friends, approaching the divorce with as little “drama” as possible will greatly speed your ability to move to the next chapter of your life. That is where your divorce attorney comes in.

The best way to work through a divorce is to focus on resolving the key issues and moving forward. Every key issue that you and your spouse can come to a reasonable agreement over makes the divorce more cost-effective and move faster. There are essentially three key issues (assuming that there are minor children involved) that need to be addressed:

• custody arrangement
  
• division of assets
  
• on-going financial support (alimony and/or child support)

Some issues like custody and spousal support allow some flexibility to make a plan that works for you and your ex-spouse’s unique situation. Child support, on the other hand is a strict calculation based on the income of each parent and how many children are involved. In cases where spousal support and a custody arrangement are needed, the court looks to the divorcing spouses to come up with a plan first. So long as it is reasonable and conforms to Pennsylvania law, the court will accept your plan and reduce it to a binding Order of Court. Only if they are unable to come up with a reasonable agreement will the court get involved. Asking the courts to solve your disputes not only gives you and your ex-spouse much less input and control over the outcome, but it also makes the divorce process much more expensive in terms of time, money and emotional turmoil for everyone involved.

In the event that an agreement simply can not be reached on an issue, litigation will be necessary.  Litigation of issues of divorce and custody can be complex and time-consuming.  It is vital that you work with someone who knows the law, is comfortable in the courtroom, and that you believe is firmly on your side.  Do not misinterpret our efforts to assist our clients in working toward an amicable resolution as reluctance to fight.  When litigation becomes necessary we are willing and able to take your issue to the courtroom and zealously fight for your rights.

Listening to You, Building a Plan, Working Towards the Best Outcome

We start by listening to you so that we understand your priorities and can work to protect what’s important to you. We can not promise you a specific result.  No one can and no one should.  But we can promise that we will work for you in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible to obtain the best outcome for you and your family.