Share Your Family Law Horror Story?
I want to thank all of you who write me about the difficult circumstances and horror stories surrounding your divorce and other family law matters, both in and out of divorce court. I receive dozens of emails each month from non-client readers, many who need help and so have questions, many who are merely venting, and many who have deep problems with how the government sponsored system for resolving family law disputes has unfolded and been applied for them, or misused.
I am not able to respond to every email, and for those who really want was is in effect a consultation with me (by seeking detailed answers to complex questions, for instance) I suggest you consider a phone or Skype conference with me or Mike Peterson at my office. I bill $350/hour for those consults and Mike bills at $250/hour.
However, for those who simply wish to have their often tragic stories heard I've decided to open up a portion of my website for posting them. Your experiences may be useful to others, and I imagine others similarly situated will read them with great interest. I think there should be a forum for people to communicate the good and bad of what they've been through.
Therefore, you must understand that I have a busy law practice along with a website that requires my constant attention and so am practically limited in my time and ability to respond or educate people about the law, your options, tactics you might try to change the course of your case or situation, and so on. I may not be able to enter into an ongoing dialogue with many of you, and don't want you to be offended if my responses are truncated, but if you wish to share your situations and experiences and if they are appropriately written, I will post them in a new section of my website that I am creating.
Your stories - if you'd like me to share them with the world for you - shouldn't simply be rants, but they certainly can express the poignancy of your situation. They need to be coherently (but not perfectly) written, not be abusive, respect other's rights to privacy, and provide enough information that a reader can follow them. I will create editorial guidelines as this concept develops. If you wish to have your story posted you will have to give me the rights to use it as I see fit.
Again, I will refine how this will work. For now I will watch to see whether creating such a forum is something the public really desires - both in terms of people sharing their experience as well as others caring to read about them. Hence, this concept is a work in progress.
If this makes sense to you and is something you wish to undertake, send me your stories at twarnold@verizon.net - don't use my on-line intake forms or blog comments because the length is limited in what I receive.
Thurman W. Arnold III, C.F.L.S.