Maine Divorce Lawyers

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Divorce can be stressful for the couple, their children as well as their close relatives. A couple might not face critical issued, if they are applying for divorce through mutual consent. When the divorcing couple is filing for a fault divorce, it would be important to hire a divorce lawyer and get appropriate guidance from him or her. One can get information about divorce laws, waiting period, separation period, divorce grounds, child custody, visitation rights etc. Even tough a person gets information about all the legal aspects related to divorce, it is essential to get guidance from an attorney. The Maine divorce lawyers will definitely posses complete knowledge about the divorce related rules in this state, but for the client it is important to analyze and choose the appropriate attorney to represent them.

The divorce in Maine is inclusive of the following-

• Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender rights
• Mediation / alternative dispute resolution
• Child support
• Collaborative law
• Annulment
• Spousal support / alimony
• Uncontested divorce
• Restraining orders
• Custody / visitation rights
• Division of property
• Delinquent support payments

Assistants of Maine divorce lawyer

The divorce lawyers in this state are assisted by mediators, facilitators, counselors, aggressive court litigators, psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists. As per the need of the case and the client, the lawyers take the assistance of insurance professionals, appraisers, accountants, substance and alcohol abuse evaluators, forensic evaluators, and guardians.

Reasons why a Maine divorce lawyer finds a case complicated

• Family businesses or a self-employed party
• Multiple children with different parents or special needs
• Mental health condition like schizophrenia, bi-polar or depression
• Alcohol or substance abuse or addiction / dependency
• Multi-jurisdictional or foreign state cases

Child support in this state

A table or matrix is used to arrive at the child support figure. The following are considered -

• Respective incomes of the spouses
• Special needs that the children may have
• Other children born to the partners
• Childcare costs
• Health insurance expense
• Ages and residency of the children

Visitation and Child contact

In some circumstances, a reasonable and liberal visitation is awarded. However, in some extreme cases, there is supervised and restricted contact. Depending on the factors in a particular case, the lawyers can guess what would be the decision of the judge in a grandparent-child and parent-child contact as well as visitation. This helps the lawyers to negotiate a better outcome for their client, which is more cost effective.

Contingent fee

A Contingent fee is a fee paid by a client to a law firm depending on the outcome of the case. In Maine, it is unethical for a lawyer to charge a contingent fee depending on the result of a divorce case. The amount of fee is generally described as a percentage of the recovery. During the initial consultations and meetings between the lawyer and the client, it is discussed whether the client has to pay a set amount of fee and expenses.

Grounds for divorce

In the courts, the initial document filed by a partner seeking divorce is called as the complaint for divorce. Through this document, the partner requests the court to end the marital status using some specific grounds. These grounds are as under -

Fault based grounds -

• Mental illness - medical attention for minimum 7 years
• Abusive and cruel demeanor of one partner towards another
• Cruel and wanton refusal or neglect to offer suitable maintenance of the complaining spouse or non support, when the other partner is sufficiently capable of providing for the spouse
• Habitual drug or alcohol use
• Utter desertion for minimum 3 years
• Extreme cruelty
• Impotence
• Adultery

No-fault based grounds -

• Irreconcilable marital differences

To choose the suitable divorce lawyer for your case from the various Maine divorce lawyers that your close friends and relatives would have suggested to you is an important task. If the divorcing person is filing the divorce under fault grounds, then they need to take the advice of the divorce attorney to choose the appropriate divorce grounds. Some clients find it difficult to discuss the attorney's fees. But it is vital to discuss such details as some attorneys may charge on hourly basis, while some might have fixed fees. Before you set up an appointment with the attorney for initial consultation find out if they charge for it. By finding out such details you would not add unnecessary financial burden. Before one meets the attorney he or she should make several photocopies of the documents that they need to provide to the attorney.

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