How to Become a Better Negotiator

Today, I’m welcoming Lisa Zahn, Esq to the show. I can’t imagine anyone more qualified to speak about how to become a better negotiator than an attorney who has successfully negotiated everything from multi-million dollar property settlements to who gets the dog. It’s no wonder she was voted Texas Super Lawyer in 2013, 2014 and 2015 by Texas Monthly Magazine and listed in Best Lawyers in America in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

How to Become a BETTER Negotiator – with Lisa Zahn, Esq.

Posted in Blog

6 Tips for Keeping Your Divorce Attorney Fees Down

Divorce and attorney’s fees are expensive. The whole process is unpleasant and stressful. You’re burdened enough with the changes in your life, and then you get hit with an invoice from your attorney. Yikes.

You don’t want to cut corners with such an important process, but it is possible to keep your attorney’s fees to a minimum. Below are six simple ways to make that happen. Not only will following these tips help your wallet, but they also make your time with your attorney more efficient and effective.

– 1 –

Limit Your Calls and Emails – Save Them Up!

Attorneys bill you for the time they spend corresponding with you – be it by call, text, or email. It can be convenient to shoot your lawyer a quick question via text and get a response ASAP, but is it necessary? 

Limit your emails and other forms of contact to no more than once a day. Save up your questions and comments and send them all at once. The same goes for sending documents or “homework” your attorney has requested.

Sending communications in bulk helps your attorney stay organized. It makes it easier for them to focus on your case and prepare their response efficiently. That, in turn, saves them time and saves you money.

– 2 –

Understand and Complete Your “Homework” in its Entirety

Your attorney may need you to complete various tasks as part of the proceedings. No matter how simple or complex, take the time to read their instructions thoroughly. Then, read them a second time. Make sure you understand what your attorney needs from you, and do it. 

If you rush through everything you’re asked to complete, your attorney can waste a lot of time. Catching your mistakes and following up to get what they need adds up on an invoice. It’s a waste of your time and you will pay your attorney as a result. So take the time upfront to get that “homework” done properly.

– 3 –

Keep Communication in Professional Channels

Today’s world is more connected than ever. Everyone struggles with keeping up, and your attorney is no exception. Even if you have their personal contact info, stick with their office phone and email. It helps them stay organized.

Of course, unless there’s an emergency.

– 4 –

When It Comes to Agreements, Be Flexible

The truth is, in a divorce, there are no winners. Don’t stand on principle and refuse to reach an agreement. The process doesn’t need to be combative, and this kind of mentality can cost a lot of time. Time is expensive for your attorney, and thus, you.

There are situations where you shouldn’t accept an agreement, where being firm is vital to the safety and well-being of yourself, your children, or your family. This tip doesn’t cover these dire situations. Stay firm, and know your attorney is there to guide you and give you advice  for exactly this purpose.

– 5 –

Seek Advice Before Major Decisions

Your choices and actions during these proceedings have significant consequences. If you’re faced with a major decision, loop your attorney in. They can offer guidance and information of which you may not be aware. For example, if you are tired of driving your old jalopy, do not upgrade to a Ferrari. Call your lawyer first!

Give your lawyer a chance to offer her advice. Their expertise will prevent mistakes and missteps you aren’t aware can be damaging. Addressing those errors can, at best, cost more time at your expense. At worst, they can make your goals for the divorce far more challenging. 

– 6 –

Your Lawyer is There for a Reason – Take Their Counsel Seriously

It’s easy to get wrapped up in what others have done or are doing. We naturally compare ourselves and our lives to others. But in something as personal as a divorce, what works for your friends or family may not be right for you.

Your lawyer is there to help you in your unique circumstances. You shouldn’t blindly follow any advice, even from a lawyer, but give it serious consideration. You may have well-meaning people in your life whose advice just isn’t right for your legal situation. Comparing trusted advice to your lawyer’s guidance can help you make these important and difficult decisions.

Remember that your situation is unique to you. Your attorney may have different preferences. Don’t be afraid to ask, “What should I do to save you time and keep my fees down”. A good attorney isn’t trying to wring every penny out of you, and they’ll be happy to work with you to save themselves time and you money.

Posted in Blog

3 Things You Must Know Before a DIY Divorce

In today’s world, you can do just about anything online. You can get a degree, buy a car, and even run a business online with little to no in-person requirements. The convenience alone is a welcome relief to our busy lives, but that convenience comes with a false sense of security. Do-it-yourself tasks online don’t always guarantee you’ve done everything you need to do.

Divorces can be done online, technically. But hidden challenges and complexities come to haunt former couples who thought the whole thing was over. You don’t know what you don’t know. Still, the task of finding an attorney and going through the process the old-fashioned way is overwhelming. And often more expensive than many folks can afford.

Choosing between the ease and convenience of an online divorce or the security and expertise of a more traditional route is not a simple decision. Unfortunately, it’s one that can have serious and long-term consequences. So, how do you choose? What do you need to know?

As a family law attorney well-versed in divorce proceedings, I can offer my insight and experience to help you make your decision. One blog post isn’t enough to recommend what every person should do. However, I can offer you a few things you need to know before you make your decision. 

1. Your divorce will be final, until it’s not.

Final should be final. Except, if your divorce isn’t handled properly, you may end up back in court down the road. 

If you have no assets, no kids, no debt, and you’ve been married only a short time, then you might be okay. You don’t need to worry about custody, visitations, retirements, alimony, or any of the other complicated parts of divorce. You may very well be a good candidate for doing your divorce online.

If you’re like most Americans, you’ll have at least one of these things. Online forms for divorce aren’t always complex enough. If the form doesn’t sufficiently breakdown who gets what, you’ll end up back in court to make that division. And if you or your spouse has a 401K that should have been divided between you, you’ll need another form (a QDRO) as well. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the complexities involved with children in a divorce. 

2. You’ll be guessing when filling out forms.

Chances are, you are not a divorce attorney. This isn’t your specialty, and it is complicated. When you go to complete the forms you need, doing so on your own may leave you feeling overwhelmed, confused, and frustrated. You can search the Internet for advice, but you can’t always trust what you find. 

This isn’t the kind of thing you want to guess on.

3. Filling out forms does not prepare you for the courthouse.

“Online” divorce is misleading – you will need to visit the courthouse at some point. Forms in hand, you’ll head up to the courthouse in your most professional attire and…do what?

Where will you go? To whom do you need to speak? In what courtroom?  Do you have everything you need?

If you can enter the courthouse knowing all the answers, then that’s wonderful. But most people don’t have the time, energy, or desire to teach themselves something they hope to never do again. 

Divorce is complicated. If you’re well-situated for a simple online divorce, then maybe that’s the right choice for you. Unfortunately, that’s rarely the case. You’re dealing with enough on your end. Doing all the research needed to accurately complete your divorce online – or taking the risk without the research – may not be worth the “convenience” of doing it online.

Consider your options first, and make sure to pick the route that works best for you and your family.

Posted in Blog

How Is Child Support Calculated in Texas?

Anticipating child support costs can be intimidating and complicated. Whether you’re the primary caregiver or the parent who will be paying child support, getting the information you need to budget and plan can feel impossible. Every case is different, and every child and family is different, but you can do some simple calculations to get an idea of what to expect. 

Guideline Child Support

There are some misconceptions about the “guideline” child support described in the Texas Family Code. This refers to the specific percentage of the paying parent’s income that will be paid in child support each month. This isn’t guaranteed to be the exact number, but a baseline.

How much is this percentage? That depends on how many children a parent is supporting. The percentage starts at 20% and goes up 5% for each additional child. 

However, these percentages can change depending on the paying parent’s circumstances. For example, if the paying parent has another child living at home with him, that base percentage starts at 17.5% instead of 20%.

Ex. Sam and Alex are divorced. Alex has primary custody of their four children, and in their case, Sam is responsible for paying child support. Based on this information alone, Sam would be paying 35% of his monthly net resources in child support.

Defining “Income”a

After figuring out the percentage a parent must pay in child support, the next step is to determine that parent’s “net monthly resources.” This is the “income” used with that percentage to determine the specific dollar amount they pay each month.

What is “net monthly resources”? This is the total monthly wages, minus taxes withheld, minus the monthly cost of the child’s health insurance premiums. 

This number cannot exceed $8,550 per month. That means if a parent’s take home pay after taxes and the child’s health insurance is over $8,550, the parent will not pay child support based on earnings greater than $8,550.

In addition to earnings, net monthly resources include dividends earned in the stock market, a company car, royalties, trust income, or other forms of income. However a stepparent’s net monthly resources may not be used to calculate a parent’s child support obligation.

The guideline child support and net monthly resources are determined. All that’s left is to multiply them to determine how much child support will be paid monthly in Texas. However, there are more factors to consider.

Special Circumstances

The guideline child support is a baseline percentage. There are many factors that could lead to a parent paying more than guideline child support, such as a child’s special needs. For example, an autistic child who requires counseling, special schooling, or occupational therapy, may also require more than guideline child support. If, when, and how much are determined by the court on a case-by-case basis, but guideline child support is always the starting point.

Posted in Blog

Alternatives

Going to court can be intimidating, and in most cases, it has become commonplace, if not mandatory, for courts to order parties to mediation before their cases will be set for trial. The majority of the time, this is a positive step.

At Zahn Family Law, we take time to thoroughly prepare for each mediation as thoroughly as if the case were going to trial in order to achieve the best possible result for our clients. Mediation allows parties to determine what their agreement will be without a judge who doesn’t know their circumstances making final decisions about the parties’ lives and children. It is confidential, non-confrontational, far less expensive and much less emotionally trying, than the stress of going to trial to resolve a case.

Posted in Services

Family Violence

We take cases involving family violence very seriously.

In cases of abuse or the threat of imminent harm to an adult, child or member of a household, protective orders are often obtained in order to keep the offending party a minimum distance from the harmed party and/or child.

Once granted, a protective order that is violated may result in jail time and a fine for the offending party.

Despite what people might think from the outside, leaving an abusive situation is not easy. Victims of abuse often leave their abusive partners an average of 7 times before making the separation final. When a person has been abused, it is important to take advantage of every resource available to keep a victim safe. We offer victims of family violence numerous resources to help them make the transition from victim to life in which they may thrive.

At times parties will make false allegations of family violence – usually a woman alleging that her male partner has abused her. When this situation arises, it is imperative that the accused party’s rights and character are protected so as not to limit the time and relationship he has with his children, or ruin his reputation.

Posted in Services

Premarital Agreements

Despite what wedding magazines want us to think, sometimes marriages don’t work out. Premarital agreements help assure you that the property you owned before marriage, as well as any income derived from that property, will remain if your “happily ever after” isn’t forever.

When contemplating marriage, couples often agree to enter into a premarital or prenuptial agreement in order to accomplish certain boundaries pertaining to a party’s assets or liabilities. Premarital agreements often serve to protect one spouse from federal income tax debt or other liabilities of the other spouse.

A party who begins a marriage with income producing separate property may wish to keep the other spouse from being able to acquire the income earned from his or her separate property. Premarital agreements accomplish those ends and more.

Despite the common misconception that premarital agreements mean the spouses don’t trust one another, that is hardly the case. Premarital agreements are akin to an insurance policy; it has your back when things go wrong.

Posted in Services

Child Services

Legal proceedings that concern the safety and welfare of your child are among the most emotional and difficult times a parent will ever experience. Every action, agreement, or court order made in a child custody matter impacts a child’s future, and that is a responsibility we do not take for granted. In Texas, it is public policy for a child to have frequent and continuing contact with both parents. The court has wide discretion in determining what is in a child’s best interest. Since this is a subjective decision to be made by a court, it is important for your attorney to know what a judge wants to hear in order to determine its ruling concerning your child. The court may rule that each parent have almost equal parenting time with their children, or that one parent have a great deal more time with the child than the other parent. That could mean determining with whom a child will live and in what geographic location. Courts will also decide whether your child’s educational and medical needs will be joint decisions between you and the other parent or made independently by both parents.

At Zahn Family Law, it is important to us to be thoroughly prepared for each case involving child custody. We take our time to research and learn the background of each case as well as the needs of a client’s children so we can be confident that we are proceeding with a child’s best interest in mind.

CHILD SUPPORT

In the majority of cases, the court will order one parent to pay child support to the parent with whom the child is living for the majority of the time, as well as maintaining health insurance coverage for the child. The amount of child support ordered depends exclusively on the paying parent’s net resources. Many factors are considered to determine a parent’s net resources. However, the receiving parent’s resources are not taken into consideration in assessing the amount of child support to be paid. After a divorce or order concerning a child has been made, circumstances often change so much that the original child support amount may need to be increased or decreased by seeking an order of modification from the court.

Our goal is to present the information necessary to the court so that your judge is well equipped to make child support orders which benefit your child in the future, and which also accurately calculate the child support a parent should be paying or receiving. We believe it is important for us to fully inform each client of the possible, realistic outcomes.

PATERNITY

Paternity cases usually involve the paternity of children born outside of marriage. In most instances, these cases arise when one parent or another seeks a court order to establish their rights, powers and duties as parents, child support to be paid and parenting time for both parents. Without such an order, one parent, usually the father, is left without having any set times he may spend time with his child. In most cases where there is not family violence or substance abuse, this is a situation that is ultimately harmful to both parents and the child. When there is not a predetermined parenting time schedule in place and one parent experiences great difficulty in providing for her child, it is the child who suffers. He or she feels her parents’ tension and animosity towards each other and is deprived of the best that each parent truly has to offer. Whatever the reasoning behind a paternity case, Zahn Family Law strives to work hard and fight to ensure the best outcome for their clients and their clients’ children.

STEPPARENT ADOPTION

When certain circumstances exist in which a biological parent has abandoned a child, exposed a child to sexual abuse, substance abuse, violence, or not paid child support for a period of time, it may be an appropriate case for that biological parent’s rights to be terminated and a stepparent to adopt a child. Many factors are considered by the court in granting a termination and stepparent adoption, including how long a stepparent has lived with a child and the nature of their relationship.

These cases can be tricky for both sides and it is our goal to help find a solution that gives a child the best future possible. At Zahn Family Law, our number one priority is to look out for the best interest of a child.

GRANDPARENTS

For many children, their grandparents have been acting as parents for one reason or another. Due to a parent’s substance abuse, mental illness, neglect, child abuse or abandonment, to name a few, grandparents are stepping up more and more often to take the place of a parent to support and raise their grandchildren. In such cases, the court may order that grandparents have rights superior to a parent’s when doing so is in the best interest of a child.

Posted in Services

Divorce Services

It does not matter who you are or what your financial situation is. Divorce is tough on everyone. It is hard to cope with the end of a marriage and the changing status of a family. It is important to find people that can support and help you through this difficult time. Aside from the compassion of friends and family, it is vital to find good professional support to help you through the process. When it comes to the legal aspects of a divorce, you need a lawyer you can depend on to make it as easy a process as possible.

In larger and more complex cases, it is essential to employ experts on your team who know how to competently evaluate your assets and potential tax consequences when your estate is divided. Lisa Zahn is experienced in developing complex property divisions in divorce cases and in resolving “messy” and complicated child custody cases. In smaller cases, it is just as important to know when to stop the process and resolve the case as expediently as possible in order to keep a client’s legal fees and costs to a minimum. At Zahn Family Law, we know how to handle any size divorce case and have experience representing women just as frequently as men. No matter what a client’s income level, race or gender, anyone going through a divorce wants one thing – to end the agony and expense of the legal process as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Regardless of the size of a case, when the custody of a child is at stake, a child’s best interests are always of paramount importance. We are extremely passionate about doing everything reasonably possible to protect the interests of a party’s child.

SAME SEX DIVORCE

On June 27, 2015, the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling that same sex marriage shall be recognized in the United States, making it legal in Texas as well. Therefore, same sex couples are subject to the same laws as spouses of traditional marriages in Texas. This means that same sex couples whose marriage is no longer viable must go through the same legal divorce process as heterosexual couples. We believe that a party who is part of a same sex marriage deserves the same level of representation, discretion and professionalism as any other client.

Posted in Services